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RE: Magnets - something I broadly agree with you on. (china owns the market) As to the future, I know the American Dynamism team at a16z, along with other VCs, has been circling this general problem: rebuilding domestic capacity around critical minerals, magnets, motors, defense supply chains, and industrial manufacturing. A16z wrote directly about the critical minerals side last year in It’s Time to Mine (linked below), and you’re also seeing magnet-specific startups going after the downstream bottleneck. Vulcan Elements, for example, announced a $1B rare earth magnet facility in North Carolina, partly backed by the Pentagon. I know y'all...

"Is the state of manufacturing in the US really that bad that a company, backed by the most important VC firm achieving 30 million motors per year is an achievement?" I'm not in a great position to comment on the annual global production of drone motors, but I can tell you that yes, the state of manufacturing in the US is pretty bleak. By one measure, China's manufacturing sector accounts for roughly 26% of their GDP, Japan is at 25%, Germany is 18%, but in the US that share is only 9% of GDP and continuing to trend downward annually...

Beans

Wow, thanks for the -long!- answer. I should have made it more clear I suppose. I was not searching for informations about the casing/compound… influence on my riding, but how those sets might compare each others. Not saying that I do not agree, just that I am a are of all of that! I rode DH for most years, and kept a smaller bike (130/140/160) on the side for the rest of my MTB rides in the mountains. Now that I have stopped DH and moved to a smaller bike because of flat surroundings, I am in a « tire...

You mean the OG Commencal Meta link? Those were such fun bikes for their time, so good.

It’s a vertical shock alignment similar to the old Diamondback Knucklebox design (mentioned above) or a Propain. Nothing to patent. It’s just a Utah County based company thinking it needs overdo marketing as they’re prone to do. Utah is the land of perceived aesthetics.

It's not similar to a Mondraker at all. Mondraker uses a short-dual-link design with the shock compressed between both links. Ari's new design is a Horst-link platform with a rocker link that compresses the shock from one end only.

It's because they're using 2005 geo.

Maybe I just haven’t noticed before on the other 32” bike pictures, but damn those tires look so close together.

I like the bar height and total reach to be pretty similar so the fit/riding position feels the same between bikes. Then, ideally, pair that with longer stays and slacker HTA on the dh bike to get slacker and longer while preserving front-rear balance. That being said, as long as the fit is relatively close you don’t need to overthink it. You’re gonna be having way too much fun on Aline to wonder if your reach is 10mm too short.

Translation: drone warfare is popping off and we want in on that bag 💰💰💰

Did you follow the link explaining the linkage? You will see an idler mounted to the lower link