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My latest mulling over the barbell effect and how it might apply to bikes. In essence, in this post I play with the idea that we're seeing a hollowing out of the middle, both with respect to company size and product pricing. // Substack // Blog EDIT: I've given @sspomer permission to post any of my stuff in full here so you don't have to click through to anything. Plus, I'm totally cool with him editing it (which I very likely need). If you all want me to aim at anything specifically for next week just let me know!

I don't think it was meant to be a direct comparison of a Focus to a GT40. It's more about an affordable vs halo product. They'll sell most of them, just like how Yeti sells most of their special editions. People sure are talking about though, and that's the biggest takeaway. Specialized is on everyone's mind. That's the world. The Big-S is gonna be in a lot of people's minds like an ear worm, and if it results in selling more bikes, then who cares how outraged the "core" is.

It's understandable that people buy full suspension bikes to ride on bikepaths tbh. I don't know why suspension seatposts haven't become a new standard on hardtail eebs. Yes, they increase minimum seat height, but honestly, for the game changing comfort they provide on a hardtail eeb, I don't know why they aren't a design consideration at this point. The range of adjustment they have is pretty impressive as well. Goes from full waterbed, to barely moving on the SR Suntour one I use. I'm waxing poetic about this thing, but your average non-cyclist who rides an e-bike once a month...

Over under on Neko and Logan getting into a fight in the pits?

Want to hear from the Rimpact Founder about Tuned Mass Dampers?

Dead Silent, no rattle. Interestingly, ours is sprung much firmer that the counter cycles version in all three frequency set ups we've targeted. It's really cool to see others doing their own data acquisition and analysis of the Countercycle one, I hope ours is put under similar security. The specific frequencies we targeted were derived from a great deal of data collection, Fast Fourier Transfer analysis and GPS comparison. Looking at which frequencies were actually felt as negative at a given instance and which were actually part of the ride characteristics of the chassis. It's clear all the options being...

I am going to make a wild projection and guess that unlike the future owners of the Sworks, you can actually ride bikes.

Literally came in, first reply, and wrote comment of the year. Well done. Seriously Spomer can we get a comment of the year article in January, just because this comment shant be forgotten lol. Def a 'once you see it, you can't unsee it' moment.

Yep... https://thelostco.com/blogs/blog/fox-na3-glidecore-upgrade-and-overview

The other way to have lower bushing clearance and smooth action is to design and manufacture the product correctly, including the necessary alignment and clearance between bushings/stanchions. Other companies don't seem to have a problem doing this. The difference felt between a fork with correct clearance and one that binds is absolutely noticeable. Of course it all depends on how "bad" the misaligned one is, and also rider weight. Smaller, lighter riders will notice it more. I have felt it myself on numerous occasions, most recently with the PUSH 9.1. If you are not working on suspension and come across...

Or if you can borrow a 20mm front wheel from someone for diagnostics, even just pushing up and down in the parking lot seems like it would answer that question. It'd be a bummer if the hub width is the problem but it'd also be an answer. Weird that your second fork was "meh" as well. Subscribed to your ongoing Podium travails.

My responses are out of concern for a rider who spent what I consider to be a large amount of money with my company, and not being happy with the results. That's not acceptable to me. It doesn't matter where the customer bought our product; I only ask as it helps with context. In the case of my first post, the rider was trying someone else's fork, so there's no more than I could offer. In regard to the post that you linked...something about the original fork that Skunk Works received just seemed off, and we wanted a longer look...

Some food for thought… let’s assume each leg is a cylindrical joint where it can slide linearly and rotate around the axis of said cylinder. A cylindrical joint on its own is equivalent to four points of contact. Six points of contact fully define the position of something in space. Two cylindrical joints is eight points of contact. Both right side up and upside down forks are technically over constrained and rely on flex and/or bushing clearance to move smoothly. In the world of aligning linear rails with bearing cars, you pretty much always have to float in at least...

For what its worth, I wasn't blown away with the two I've had from a sensitivity perspective. I didn't take the fork apart and "check" alignment, but even buddies who rode it agreed it was very "meh". I don't know what is going on, but I am starting to think there is more variance fork to fork than maybe we want to acknowledge. One thing I am starting to question is if the hub I have (DT Swiss) is part of the problem (or rather, Fox didn't leave enough "float"). The hub measures a hair wider than boost and I've...