All

any and all relationship drama and discussions can be started in a new thread in the OFF THE BIKE forum area, NOT The Hub - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/VitalMTB/Off-the-Bike,3 - any topics like that started in The Hub will be nuked. any more relationship drama and discussion in this thread will be deleted.

That's a seriously classy goodbye from Eric. Such a bummer to see sponsored athletes who are so intertwined with a specific brand have to part ways due to the current situation.

Never said it wasn’t valid. Said take it to a different thread at this point. Just like CS length talk in tech rumors.

CAN WE PLEASE STOP WITH THE RELATIONSHIP STUFF? this is a dead horse that is now pulp. (not saying i agree with it). PLEASE KEEP IT OUT OF TEAM RUMORS AT THIS POINT Go make another thread if this is that big of a deal for you guys

Oisin (ush-een 😉) O'Callaghan also paints a pretty clear picture in a short interview on Their Erlangsen's LesGets recap: https://youtu.be/TSP1J1LjYYQ?feature=shared 4min 20 sec mark. He is asked if he is claiming unemployment benefits, says he may as well be, and that he's not even sure he'll see out the rest of the season with them

I had actually started my son on an ebike... I was better for me not having to wait for him, more fun for him because he wasn't completely smoked all the time. As he got older and spent a couple of seasons on the high school team, he became a stronger rider.. Even after a couple of years away from racing, he still smokes me uphill.. He wants an ebike again, but more for transportation reasons.. The old man can still take him on the downhill though.. Remember, almost no newb likes the climbs.. We all went through that. It's...

Well that in lies the issue. I see plenty of adults who quit mtbing cause they can’t afford to involve the kids and plenty of kids who have friends who are biking but the entry costs seems entirely infeasible. The latter certainly applies to me growing up. I get the difficulty of profitability in this area. But unless the industry as a whole tries to resolve it it will always rely on upper middle and upper class enthusiasts and die hards to survive. And that’s not the ticket to thriving in my view.

I haven’t heard anything yet. A few quick thoughts, maybe I’ll do a follow-up since this is one of the biggest question marks in the industry right now. At its core, YT has always been a cool company but what really set them apart was pricing. The problem is that their financials show this model was a bit of a house of cards, especially now. You can’t run a business long-term with EBITDA margins that barely clear, or even sit below, your WACC (aka, you are making less on your capital than you are spending on it). This is obviously...

It's a lot simpler than that! Plenty of people only buy Specialised, and owning a DH bikes is cool again. Could be the brand image, or the marketing (lies), or the good service they get at the shop, probably trade in their old specialised from 9 months ago... Not taking shots at anyone, I know plenty of people that operate like this.

The general consesus has been that mid-height pivots are the way to go. High high pivots brings some negatives. The problem with mid height pivots is that your idler (and maybe even chainring) has to be very small to fit everything together, which brings with it inefficiencies. This way they could package everything in a way that makes sense kinematics wise. 2chainz is a consequence of pivot height, not the other way around.

dropper post, brake bleed, suspension rebuild, thats it.

Just ride it. Save every penny that was earmarked for an upgrade, and use it get a new bike when you have 1500 to 2500 USD. Then don't upgrade that bike either, and save until 5-6000. BTDT, all of us.

Nathan Pontvianne is back from injury after missing 4 races. He went 3rd fastest in timed training. He's podiumed in 2 European races in the past month and won one of them. He's definitely a rider to keep an eye on. Mr. 100, Troy Brosnan, led all riders with a blistering timed run more than 7 seconds faster than the next man. I'm not going to say he's a lock to win this weekend, but he's certainly making those $100 Fantasy buys look like they could be the deal of the century (pun intended).

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...

"Some food for though" and then proceeds to give a huge Thanksgiving meal. Are you telling me fox engineers might be smarter than the average bear when it comes to sliding things up and down?

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...

Really? I feel like this was a pretty long and drawn out prototype process. Pretty surprised they've been sleeping on the Enduro this long. Six years since the last update. They probably don't want to launch a bike in this market if they can't charge $13k.

Regardless of what any of our opinions are on the Nine One, I want to say thanks for being so involved in this thread and wanting to communicate clearly and directly. Direct and public communication between customers and the head of a suspension company is nearly unheard of, so it's appreciated! Thanks, Darren.

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...