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I'm hesitant to chime in as I see the discussion has veered pretty heavily towards pricing, but I'd throw the Ibis Ripley V5 into the mix. I've been on one for about a year and a half and it's a really impressive trail bike. 130/140 travel, 29 or MX wheels with a flip chip that keeps the geometry intact, well executed in-frame storage, and DW Link suspension. I run mine a few different ways - stock suspension (Float/34) for a lighter, sportier feel and a Vivid air/Lyrik for more support and rowdier riding. Also change up the wheels between full...

Looks like the Ripley SL is out

some new levo r that is supposed to replace the levo sl

Perhaps he'll be testing a 32" front wheel (on the Ripley SL, or on another Ibis model). AFAIK the Ripley SL was designed for 29/29.

I saw a raw carbon one the other day, it looks really good IMO…

some other deets: 117mm rear 130mm front travel. storage box. Frame made in California in their solar powered factory.

Ripley SL next Tuesday. teaser on the Ibis insta, you can see the general shape. This should appease all the dad shredders on MTBR who keep telling me the V5 is too much of a trail bike now.

I can speak to clothing as I run a tiny MTB apparel brand, Abit Gear. The short story is that for USA brands, tariffs are making it a royal PITA and covid saw a glut of inventory that isn't yet cleared. Sure, margins are good on paper, but you have a SKU problem with apparel do to size and color variants, you have to carry a lot of aged inventory, and fight discounting from competitors more than with hard goods. For technical apparel, China is, by far, the best quality. Most of the technical apparel factories are in China. They...

Absolutely 1000% you should plan to ride in Laguna Beach on your trip. If all you rode was Laguna and Santa Cruz, you'd have a great time. Everything else is bonus. I would also recommend riding "The Plunge" at Simi Valley, if you like long travel bikes and rocks.

I'd bet money their next bike comes with interchangeable dropouts that lets them sell bikes with SB157, but the consumer can change to 148 like everyone wants. Pivot has got to be one of the most change-resistant bike companies I can think of.

That's fair, but the GX axs build is 6900 for the allied and the current Tallboy is 7149 for almost the same build... Unless the 4 bar Tallboy comes with a price drop why on earth would I get it over the allied? Or over a Norco Fluid or transition smuggler? Just going the long way around to talk trash on the new tallboy SC has to do or say something to justify the change from VPP to Horst. There is too much competition in that space to just drop the bike and call it a day. Talk about the...

Few speculations: New Sram stuff: there is currently a countdown at this page https://www.sram.com/en/sram/mountain/campaigns/dh for February 23rd-24th, that is most likely Transmission AXS DH and new Boxxer E1 with linear XL air spring add-on and Charger 3.2 being launched. There is a possibility new Zeb B1 get launched at the same time they share the Linear XL air spring add-on. New Lyrik would most likely be only updated to charger 3.2 so could be soft launched at later date (possibly switch from D2 to D3 in Sram product nomenclature) I hope the new Pike D1 doesn't only get the updated...

Definitely a bar and stem combo

I just bought this bike and it’s all time. I need a big ass battery and full power rig for what we ride in and around Tahoe. All the buds rode full power so it wasn’t a decision (I did see a guy on the trail with the new Norco e-bike - must be coming soon - and he said it pedaled great without the motor on). But the range is absolutely perfect. Has pop and feels really jibby, yet it’s a high pivot and slays the rough. I knew about this other rig and chose the range full fat...

In Australia at least the Trek stores aren't real local bike shops. They are 'Trek shops' and stock only trek and bontrager with a handful of other accessories. Even then they dont stock at lot of small trek items and it can take quite some time to order parts in. It's not even worth ordering in anything that isn't Trek or Bontrager. I bought a Gen 6 Slash at a very big trek store in Australia around 12months after it came out and they had released updated parts and service bulletins to fix the chain dropping issues. None of it...

Ok, the fact the page describing the benefits of membership is behind the membership paywall is extremely funny.

I keep on thinking I should subscribe.. how "road" is it vs these sort of articles (that I would totally pay for). The recent velo shenanigans have only added to that line of thinking.

Here's a gift link: : https://escapecollective.com/layoffs-overstock-retail-decline-and-debt-… If you value some really great (albeit primarily road focused) cycling journalism, you should totally support Escape Collective.

Wish I could read the whole article. Thanks for the link. It's still staggering just how many people though people would buy 2x the amount of bicycles per year indefinitely during the COVID boom, and purchase rate wouldn't return to the long run average.

https://escapecollective.com/layoffs-overstock-retail-decline-and-debt-… More on Trek's troubles