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Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think swapping wheels and tires matters more than swapping bikes. I'd rather pedal a reasonably efficient enduro bike on light wheels with trail casings than a downcountry bike on DH casings. And the gap between an enduro on lighter tires and a downcountry on trail tires just isn't big enough to justify a second bike — especially since I'm never on XC trails. I used to run a shorter-travel trail bike alongside the enduro. Now I just have the one bike — 170 front / 160 rear — and two wheelsets.

And then next thing you know there’ll be position sensitive damping and I’ll be sitting here wondering why so much complexity has been added all to solve something easily doable with a linkage. Springs in series result in a crazy low initial spring rate unless you’ve got at least one very stiff spring in there. Half of what they help with in off road applications doesn’t apply to bikes at all. In theory it does let you pick an initial sprint rate, final spring rate, and transition point, but without winding your own springs the customization available is surprisingly limited.

BigLinkage in here trying to sell their leverage rate conspiracies.

Everyone knows gearboxes are currently less efficient than derailleurs. But with a gearbox sitting 2nd overall in the EDR, running on multiple competitive DH teams, and looking like the future of ebikes, the door is open for more mainstream options. We're at an inflection point whether you like it or not — this isn't the same gearbox talk we've had for the last ten years. It's actually picking up steam. Everyone fixates on efficiency, but what about pulling all that weight off the rear axle and putting it under the BB? For gravity riders that's a significant benefit. Efficiency is...

Riders' goals matter, this is where racing and daily riding for nine-to-fivers diverge. Enduro and DH racers want the fastest speed going down, recreational riders are looking for the best compromise to reduce suffering on the way up. The people I ride with only care about speed when climbing . For descending we want confidence and predictability. Confidence = speed for us. The tire that is fastest descending changes 150 times a year based on the specific trail and the amount of moisture (or complete lack thereof). My ideal tires for a weekday lunch ride on Galbraith flowy stuff are...

Slow clap. Part of the reason why road bikes came with 19-23mm tires pumped up to 120+ psi is because they felt faster than bigger or softer tires, and because of flawed test methodology (testing tires on smooth steel drums in a lab vs. testing on real asphalt). I've heard a lot of people in the tire forum say that radials roll slower, and they certainly might. But until I see actual test results using a methodology that makes sense, I'm going to assume that no one knows the answer to that question.

Let me say more clearly what was implied in my previous post: those old road bike rolling resistance tests tell me that our own internal rolling resistance gauges in our brains are not very trustworthy. I'm not convinced that radial tires roll slower because the only evidence we have is that they feel like they roll slower. 21mm tires pumped up to 120 psi feel fast as hell on asphalt. As you go faster, you get more and more vibration feedback from the tire, giving the sensation of greater and greater speed. A 32mm tubeless GP5000 pumped up to 60...

But, but, but... To do that you have to stand up to climb, which apparently is too hard for people to do nowadays.

Two words in the title of this thread make everything relevant and on-topic. Tech and innovation. If there was strictly a “tech rumors” thread, it would inevitably discuss the technology that a product is competing against or replacing. There’s really no way around it. If you aren’t going to discuss the relevance of a new product or innovation, then what’s the point? As far as Ebike derailments go, the separate thread is nice. But you have to argue that 90% of the tech and innovation in MTB right now is because of Ebike market dynamics.

Everybody serving the gearbox coolaid and how ebikes are getting them and how that will trickle down to pedal bikes, remember that the Avinox and Gaobao or whatever they are called have a CVT gearbox using two electric motors. That kind of a "gearbox" (integrated variable transmission to be precise) is wholly incompatible with bikes that do not have batteries. The only viable gearbox option covering both ebikes and bikes is the Pinion which is, functionally (speaking in volumes), non existent in both camps. As @Shinook and @Uncle Cliffy have said, the future has been promised for years now with...

Blame Warner is a really bad take on this, Pon is shutting their factory down and cutting 120 jobs, Warner have nothing to do with this.

I've even heard rumors that Red Bull doesn't actually make helmets either

Maybe this isn't an accurate point of view, but I feel like pedal MTBs and e-bikes aren't really trying to solve the same problems. I think a pretty massive effort goes into the design of pedal MTBs so that they can be comfortably and efficiently pedaled, at least outside of DH-specific bikes. Even enduro bikes, especially those that are raced, need to pedal decently. For an e-bike, pedal performance is probably pretty far down on the list of design goals. I've watched a handful of folks with dead batteries or faulty electronics try to pedal their 50-lb beasts out of...