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Having browsed every item they have in the auction (tempted to buy myself the contents of a room for $30) I'm not sure I see millions of dollars worth of stock there and the entirety of their IP was a convoluted suspension design to avoid paying Horst link royalties. Lowball 'em! That said if you need someone on the ground in BC, I'm in.

I started a new thread to keep the conversation going around TPC’s without bogging down tech rumors. Discussions around metals are also welcome! Materials and Processes for Cyclists

we were talking on our ride last night about avinox, and a couple well placed industry friends was saying that there's a real feeling around that they're about to devour the industry and in particular (SRAM/Shimano/Bosch/etc) as a whole given how much engineering resourcing they're putting into the whole thing (Amflow, Avinox, etc). Granted I'm deaf in one year so hearing the fine points of a conversation at speed can be challenging, but they were saying they have a many many hundreds or thousands of engineers working on the motors, batteries, frames, complete bikes and all the brands playing me...

I feel bad already about cluttering tech rumors with a politics post. Lets leave it here and I'll let someone make/revive a politics thread if they want to bitch more. In terms of thermoplastic vs epoxy carbon and the repair of frames, are carbon repairers able to work with thermoplastic? There are two carbon repairers in my city that do excellent work on bikes. All fairly affordable and straightforward. What happens if I approach them with a broken thermoplastic carbon frame? Ignoring theoretical repairability, is it currently practical/possible to fix?

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...

Assuming you’re asking from a technological, not environmental standpoint . Can we technologically put TPC’s in the bin for the next 25 years? That’s a blade that cuts both ways. Unless high performance polymers like PEEK, PEKK, PAEK, PPS, etc come down significantly in price then TPC’s are probably not going to gain much more traction in our industry. But if we don’t work to develop them then there’s zero chance of them being adopted. Much like fossil fuels thermoset resins are so damn good at what they do replacing them is really hard.

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...

touting recyclability of a bike frame sure feels a lot like the weirdo prudes who push for hemp fabrics as a reason for cannabis legalization…I mean, I have some hemp jeans but we’re all adults here: we’re trying to get high bro! We recycle pretty much zero plastic. I wish it mattered, but it simply does not.

Feels like that's the bitter end, right? Administration/receivership/bankruptcy is one thing, but it can lead to restructuring. Selling off all the physical assets via auction is another thing entirely. Although I suppose YT went through the auction process and they're back again.

Interesting to note that with Orbea's AGM, they work with "one person, one vote". So you don't end up with a very small number of people controlling everything if they have more personal shares.

In some cases, yes, and it's already happened in the earlier days of the web being a thing. We used to order groups from Pro Bike Kit when they were offering them significantly cheaper than what we could source domestically, including shipping. Plus, they actually had them in stock. The shop owner knew he was basically feeding the beast that would bite his hand, but getting an extra couple hundred from a sale meant bonuses and bills paid. A number of shops do drop ships straight from the manufacturers these days too, but to that end they generally get roped...

I stocked my home workshop with a lifetime supply of cables, crimps and ferrules plus hose, olives, banjos and barbs for multiple brands for less than I paid for my last 'Shimano' replacement line and banjo from my LBS, took about 10 days to arrive. Wouldn't even need to be that responsible to make it work, just slightly more responsible than average.

I have long wondered if shops are going to bypass distributers and go directly to Asian factories for consumable parts. Ie shift cables, crimps etc. It would mean longer lead times and someone with greater responsibility when it comes to ordering, but it also would mean better margins for already generally high margin items, that consumers are not brand loyal too. Wonder if shops in Europe and NA would be willing to order bikes like these for kids bikes where warranty scenarios are lower, but these bikes do look very entry level.

You are already riding bikes with aerospace carbon fiber. The actual fiber is the same as what's used in aerospace. Example: Toray T1100 is the world's strongest fiber and used in both bikes and aero. T1200 coming and will be 10% stronger. What's different is mainly the resin and the process of making the bike. Note I could argue some of the bike parts I've seen are actually more complex and high performance than many aerospace manufacturers would/could make. It's impressive how far we've come in this industry.

You looking specifically at that pic? If so, that’s not his bike in the pic. He’s just unloading it. In other pics from the same day, he’s on his usual bike. But to confirm- levers are not flat enough, bars are rolled back, no stem spacers for that high stack, old fork, no ochain, diff tire set up. Sorry I rambled. Dif bike haha Now in regard to ochain… I’m definitely curious about that! He was the main guy prototyping higher/different degrees… and now it’s Sram. So it’ll be interesting to see how that’ll play out

New Supernaught development - Dred E with a Boxxer, custom link and what looks to be a bb conversion where the motor was?

No way we love that shit here. It's a Tech Rumours mainstay. You still get an upvote for requesting a new thread, however.

Can we get a separate thread for requesting separate threads so it doesn’t clog up this thread?

Gas Gas had the right idea with the moto-inspired replaceable plastics kits for their ECC ebikes. How many carbon frames become landfill waste from rock strikes or crashes where a sacrificial "fairing" could have taken the blow? If the industry wants to improve durability, this is the right place.