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"Fashion has taken over mtb, if a bike doesn't look right it's not going to sell." Cycling has been in the fashion business for a long time. Image over substance. Marketing over engineering. Features over benefits. Trendy picks and subjective opinions of a few tastemakers (product managers) setting the course 24-36 months out. Where it has gone in the last 8-10+ years is more "fast fashion," unfortunately. Guess on the trend due to poor data (color, style, etc), over-produce, flood the channels, dump the remaining inventory, rinse and repeat in time for the next season. Artisanal lugged steel, Colnago C-whatever-number-they're-up-to...

Remember the good old days when we talked about bikes on here?

Today I looked for some replacement floor mats for my Japanese car and found one manufacturer that puts little Imperial Japanese flags on them. I wondered what they do if you own a Volkswagen.

Wait till you hear about Volkswagen!

Take it easy buddy. I’m not trying to derail the entire conversation but also think it’s allowed to have an aside now and again. There’s plenty of off topic quips that go on in this thread.

some would say bikes shouldn’t have motors either but here we are.

Also agree! The order is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle for a reason.

One thing missing here is the fact that with the proliferation of composite know how, there are more people around able to safely repair a wider range of issues. Rather than pretending we are recycling carbon bikes I’d love to see more frames designed in ways that facilitate repair. Repair is verifiable in a way that recycling is not, it is cost effective for everyone concerned, and it is as close as you’ll get to good for the environment. It probably flows on to other design decisions to ensure repair is viable (like bearing placement, etc etc), but designing bikes...

potential inappropriate content warning 🤣 updated version of neko explaining his 32" experiment from mountain creek

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...

All these aerospace grade components and I still can barely get any air.

What thermoplastics allow us to melt away the matrix to be left with just the fibres. I guess you could either chop those to be a filler or recycle them (make new fibres), but you are for sure not picking up a cloth from the bunch of fibres and reusing it. As I see it (without being in the know) it's mostly component separation that's the benefit here vs. resin matrix materials than the "reuse" type recycling. Reusing old polymers is frowned upon anyway outside non ctiritcal applications as you don't know the state the polymer is in. These are...

But the recyclability factor is only a huge bonus if it's easily done. I was under the impression it's anything but. Sure it would help reduce manufacturing wastage at source but in terms of a closed loop consumer recycle system I think the claims are a bit far reaching, no?

"To what extent to you agree with the following statements? thermoplastic carbon mountain bikes fit well with the way i go out and come home in my daily life"

I missed that you were European. I don't have a clue on access issues on your side of the pond and didn't mean to be commenting on those. I also should have prefaced my response by saying it wasn't meant to be personal or inflammatory. I tend to see red on this issue. For my mental health, I should probably unfollow this thread. But I also want to stay to learn more about other people's opinions for trail-advocacy reasons. I do think a huge factor in how people view this issue is their normal riding. If you're mainly climbing up...

Trust me, Porsche isn't in financial trouble. Like, not even remotely. They just strategically like to appear as if they are, for political- and lobbying reasons. Only slightly related rant: The automotive industry in Germany on a wider scale is once again trying to apply political pressure in order to achieve massive tax cuts, subsidies and erode labour protection laws. It's the same old story; They're feigning financial trouble and mass job insecurity as a bargaining tool for political leverage. And yes, our automotive sector is so large and influential that they can sort-of hold the entire country hostage until...

PB to scroll, Vital to read

nothing? they are the only ones making their own controls and the only ones integrating an electric dropper that is powered by the ebike's battery. one could say they are the first company offering their own ebike UI. everyone else is on stock controllers

is it that they are "sold out" or is it they "never had any to sell to begin with" yet?