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Agreed. Downtime goes Downhill is awesome and Chris is really great as an interviewer. Pre/post race episodes are great. He builds rapport with his guests really well so it often feels like friends talking. I don't expect him or anyone else in mtb media to ask the hard-hitting questions; they all have to be careful not to piss potential advertisers off. Chris has great episodes, a great attitude, seems genuinely curious, and also does some episodes that pay him well. I'm always stoked to see a Downtime episode show up on my phone.

Here in support of Downtime. Say what you want about the podcast, Chris got the interview where others failed.

Chris is the man. The amount that guy does for gravity sports and athlete exposure is unreal. I think it's unfair to bash downtime over the YT gong show. Keen for a Vital x Downtime 2025 recap podcast this slow season 👀

I love Downtime, but I’m not expecting hard hitting journalistic questions out of this interview, unfortunately.

Probably just pay a outside bartending company that would serve at events that way handle having a license to serve not the location where its being served.

Lol I did feel this needed to be broken out to its own thread - Neko Mullaly did a great video on weight here and came to the same ind of conclusion I did - There is a certain minimun weight of wheel/tyre/brakes etc most people need to run for the bike to ride well, and the only way to drop any significant amount of unsprung weight from those parts would impact performance far worse than anything you gained. As long as you have good tyres, wheels that are stiff and strong enough for you then you can try to...

In my experience, if you remove enough weight it can make a truly significant difference. Back in like 2017, I set out to drop as much weight off the rear wheel as I could, going from stock low-end everything to high-end everything. I dropped 700ish grams and it made a massive difference in not only suspension performance (it could flutter for the first time) but overall bike handling/feeling as well, enough that I've prioritized it on every bike since. That was an a Devinci Spartan. I could've dropped more weight but stuck to an alloy rim and doubledown casing. I...

Me going between this thread and the OG Tech Rumors and Innovation thread...

It depends if your racing or not really. A lot of people set up their bikes for comfort on their regular trails. If your racing you just want to maximise cornering speed, so if it rattles your teeth out over some rocky chatter, just hold on as it worth it to exit the corner faster and save 0.5s on the next straight. Obviously have it high enough to not wreck a rim or pinch flat on the way down. Remember when Neko made his carbon rear end to the DH bike, and was hopeful it would improve suspension performance because...

I think in most cases the things that add weight normally add more performance than you lose from the increased mass, eg heavier/wider tyres. Also unsprung mass is going to play a bigger part at higher frequencies (more rapid changing direction) and our enemy friction is normally much bigger at that point! So 200g of unsprung mass doesnt matter too much when there is 4-5kg of excess friction in the system.

He definitely not a young guy... I follow him on IG.. I think he enjoys welding and doing projects of sorts, but doing full on production runs may not be his thing now..

Has any frame brand ever promised on-site warranty support at races before? That is very cool. 👍

The main point to acknowledge is that there's little to no advantage to a shorter travel bike in these areas. I'm western alberta, and do most of my riding in BC. There's a geographical correlation there as well with the popularity of different manufacturer's geometry flavours, particularly in f/r ratios. You couldn't pay me enough money to ride a pivot here, but I'd happily use one in arizona.

Yes, I think annual threads is the format I would also prefer. As others have pointed out, this thread specifically thrives on a healthy mix of actual tech rumors and lighthearted banter / memes. But for that, the conversation needs some sort of continuity. To get that continuity, but also not eat up too many resources on the Vital servers, I think yearly servers would be the best solution.