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An absolute bicycle

It’s Taichung Bike Week. Primarily it's an OEM and B2B event, but occasionally some new stuff can be found out in the open. Speaking of DVO:

In the early days at least, yes they used the Spire hardware. That was actually something we had recommended since at lower volume it’s easier to just buy existing pivot hardware. It’s one of those things you that is super efficient to run in volume but not so much in low quantities. Of all the Horst link bikes I’ve messed with, that pivot hardware kit has been one of the easiest to live with. You aren’t gaining any performance from it, though. I’d imagine at this point they are using their own hardware though.

I've got a real rumor, Kasper Woolley is running a non standard Suntour Voro Coil on his zerode. Noticed while scrolling through my photos from the open this weekend. Lots of fast people running the Suntour stuff.

I’m assuming the three downvotes mean “this thread was never good” lol

There are like 3 completely idiotic conversations happening at once here.

Hey man, you are derailing the fuck out of this thread. This thread is for "tech rumors and innovation". If you want to have pointless pedantic arguments with people, make your own thread for that.

Carbon design and warranty issues and Bickering About it. Now back to Tech Rumors!

As you mentioned, this is old information by many years and product cycles. Yeti does all their engineering work in house from kinematic to ID, FEA and carbon layup along with custom suspension tuning. They do partner with a vendor in Asia for production but all the main work is done in Golden. You can hear a lot of what goes on direct from the main man there in this interview You Think You Understand MTB Suspension? Think Again | Yeti Cycles, Peter 'Stretch' Zawistowski You can also look at their Linkedin page to see exactly who and how many...

Beyond the pylons just doesn't have the same magic to it

Kailey Skelton's tire exploded off the wheel (I think it was in the 2nd sector). She borrowed a knife from a spectator and cut the tire free and then rode almost all the way down the hill on a bare wheel, crossing the finish line on foot.

I now see what people were warning against in regards to @Dougal - SC...

This thread used to be good.

This forum at the moment (not actually just poking fun)

That's an awfully confident statement from someone with little or no experience operating a company with large scale outsourced production, overseas or domestic. Care to share a factual example? Also what and who is a 'marketing type brand?' Last I checked the bike industry is collection of honest brands, riders, and designers trying their best to make products of value or improve the experience and enjoyment of other cyclists. Of course they also have to market and advertise if they want to stay in business, but both realities can coexist. You're the NZ distributer for Hayes/Manitou and operate a suspension...

The soft undercurrent of a few of these post seems to imply anything made in Asia or engineered by Asians is somehow of lower quality. Engineering really has nothing to do with nationality or ethnicity. You can find high and low quality products everywhere in the world. Quality is a reflection of the decisions made by the brand not the the citizenship or location of the engineers. If you are manufacturing at scale at some point you'll need to work with a factory and their engineers. And you'd have a hard time finding a greater concentration of institutional knowledge and...

Based on what I’ve seen at least a half dozen at Specialized alone and SC certainly has a few. ENVE used to be full of composites experts, less so now that most of their production is in Asia. TR is much smaller, but Ibis being similar in size had a composite/structures engineer even before the in-house stuff started. To the extreme small-end Unno is heavily engineered and optimized. Even if the liaison engineer (the person living in Asia who interfaces directly with the factory) were doing the composites and analysis that would be reasonable. I guess my assumption was a...

How many composites engineers do you think are there in the whole industry? And how many stress analysists? FWIW, from what I've heard (obviously could be wrong or could be old info) apparently Yeti's process was quite similar. Engineering firm doing the suspension (Switch link was done by Sotto Design Group for example, not sure what the situation is like for Switch Infinity or Sixfinity) and an industrial design firm doing the surface modelling of the frame (the 'looks') and an overseas firm doing molds, carbon layup based on their experience, testing, if it breaks, strengthen the breaking point, once...