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1. tons of people used remote lockouts in Pietermaritzburg and in Canberra. Some people in both cases even went so far to run effectively enduro bikes (single crown fork of Fabien Barel in Canberra, prototype of what was to be the Spartan for Stevie in Pietermaritzburg). 2. use the technology that is available to you. Theoretically this is available to everybody. It's the sponsors and/or the riders problem, if these things do not get used. And it's not like lockouts are something that nobody has seen. And even if they were, so what? Somebody figured out something new. And it's...

Cheating is maybe the wrong term, anyone could have used a rear lockout like many did in Cairns and he manually adjusted his front fork compression with his hand... Unless being smart is considered cheating?

This might warrant a new thread but has anyone tried the Vorsprung Secus yet? I saw the Luftkappe mentioned upthread and I love mine but really intrigued by the Secus Upgeraditis is real folks, talk to your doctor about it.

Just different parts packages. Fox, rs, SRAM, and Shimano all had releases for last year. Commencal along with many brands could be guilty of barely changing a bike And acting like 2 mm longer chainstays would totally change your life for marketing reasons. I think a lot of brands liked the idea of a “new model” every year but have realized most riders aren’t that dumb Or would be mad when they Spent 6 k for barely a difference. It wasn’t a good model for anyone. An interesting theme is that many brands are offering no discounts on older models...

I's say more and more brands are doing just that, Commencal and Banshee quickly come to mind but I believe there are more...

In house manufacturing will only happen when the manufacture is in Taiwan or China the best example would be Chromag you can buy a Chromag Wideangle for I think $749 that's welded in Asia or you can get a Samurai that's welded by Mike Truelove in BC for $1634 & I really really want a Samurai can't justify it but it'll likely happen. its one of those here's my money things! So think about this because I have currently we pay about $1500-1600 for a asia welded full suspension bike(Commencal)if the manufacturers can't source quality product at a decent price...

From what I've understood its the problem with parts so I doubt each brand is willing to design their own forks/shocks, brakes etc...

Brines and Eddie are right- this ain't a new problem at all. I speak from personal experience in the late 90's when I ate an extremely hard to get $600 on a plane ticket I couldn't use to travel to Italy, Slovenia, and France for 3 WC DH races. Why couldn't I go? Because my UCI points had expired a few days before the races. I wasn't gonna rack up my credit card for the trip if I couldn't race. I called Martin Whiteley, who was the UCI guy who handled such things at the time, and asked him if...

It's crazy out here. Keith Darner said "I'll never host another DH race again" because costs are so high to run a race and racer turnout is so low. Driving across the country multiple times one year to earn the right to enter a WC race the next year is stupid.

For USA riders last year, there were only 5 chances to earn UCI points domestically, the four Pro GRT rounds and National Champs. Of those 5, only Windrock and Nationals had enough points on offer to get a racer to the minimum needed to race a World Cup (Mountain Creek only awarded 10 points to the winner with Rd. 2 and 4 earning 30). The top-6 at Nationals earned 40 or more points and at Windrock a racer would have needed to place in the top-2. Assuming the normal attendance of WC level riders at these races and the top...

I know RB was the driving force behind the reduced finals entrants and protected riders always going last, knocking even more fast privateers off of the broadcast. I really don't feel that guaranteeing the top 20 (or top-10 current and top-10 prior year) TV time offers the viewer enough value to outweigh the opportunity taken from a fast Euro-random to make the broadcast (and us the opportunity to watch those awesome runs!). Unless the teams have made some non-public deal with RB/UCI to ensure their sponsorship exposure requirements, the rule changes don't make sense.

Great article, Eddie. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this all been done on purpose with the express intent of killing privateer racing? For their broadcast Red Bull wants recognizable names (top athletes only), lots of jumps and high speed for video (machine-built trails as opposed to technical, roots, etc), and close race times (smooth and fast instead of slow and tech). A few years ago, a top WC athlete and RB rider told me that RB was considering going to top-40 only with no qualifier so that the WC circuit was like a closed-off reality TV show for...

I don't know how things work with sanctioning bodies, but my guess is the only reason UCI doesn't do this is they want money. Which makes sense in the short term. But we don't want this to be a short term thing. We want to foster elite racers who pursue dh, not switch to another sport or leave with a bad taste in their mouth. I've never had a real shot at world cups, but I remember as a junior who was babysitting, mowing lawns, and packing boxes under the table to get even a few hours from home for...

Can't speak for other countries, but if you're a US rider you pretty much need to be rich to get into World Cups. DH isn't a cheap sport, but traveling the country for 5 races that get you UCI points (and not even that many) is crazy. Expecting people to max out credit cards and make objectively horrible financial decisions just to have a shot at participating is sad, and fundamentally bad for our sport. The UCI needs to start giving points for respected regional races like NW cups. They need to just accept these races will be run different...

We have to keep in mind, UCI is a Euro/french centric organization and they are probably blind to what is DH racing outside of their cocoon. In France and in Europe, the sport is much more organized with clubs in every village and races at every level (department, regional, national). In US, there is way less regional racing, it makes the sport more expensive and just limits the pool of talents. Enduro is also a distraction for race promoters and racers. I understand UCI (and Red Bull) wanting to make WC DH an elite series and not a participation sport...

Thanks for the feedback team. One point which might not have been crystal clear in my article. If you cant get the points, you enter via the national jersey. Then travel to your first world cup and if all the stars align and you qualify for finals. Then, in my opinion you have the speed, the talent and you've proved yourself. So you should be able to enter yourself into the following race. Giving 50th place 10 points is bullshit as its those points which dictate whether they race the next race, not their skill and not the fact that...