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tuhoto on MS confirmed!!!

You realise Aaron owns and runs the IFR team now and it's a separate entity to Intense Bicycles? He's chosen to run Kenda and take their sponsorship $. No one at Intense is forcing them to run them.

Get the tyre company make you a special run of their tyres with a different compound? There's a tweak. As for tweaking suspension, how do you tweak a linear leverage ratio bike blowing through the travel to run a coil shock if your rider requires it? And to drag out the argument to ridiculousness, it can't be done with a simple rocker link switch, as the shock is driven off the swingarm for example Everything can be tweaked, if there is a strong enough wish. With tyres, the strongest tweak applicator is the humble sharpie. It has enabled running...

I felt worse for Jack about the stitch up he got from C'dale, but that looks to have ended up being a blessing in disguise. He seems pretty happy where he is now although I hope he gets paid the $ he deserves in the next contract cycle.

The Onza Aquila that Gwin developed with them is actually a great tyre. It is however a very Maxxisesque tread pattern and I'm pretty sure they are made in the CST factory (Maxxis parent company) and the 40a visco compound is suspiciously like the old Maxxis Slow Reezay. They worked really well for him in MSA in the wet! Those Kendas they're running now look like they work as well as the IRC Kujos I had in the late 90s!

You could use the same argument but suspension can be tweaked to make a bad bike work and vice versa, tyres can't. Brakes can also be tweaked to preference, tyres can't. Though not all brakes and suspension are created equal, they can both be made to perform, tyres can't, maybe spoke tension or cutting little knobs off, can arguably help with grip or rolling speed. Never gonna not feel bad for Jack.

He should get sharpie on board

Aaron Gwin like good $$ more than good tires. All of the components his team run go to the highest bidder.

In the current form it's a free market. If a rider/team prefers big bucks to big results, it's on them. As for F1 (and some other series), it's done that way to prevent a spending war. Back in the Bridgestone-Michelin wars Bridgestone was essentially making tires for Ferrari and them only with other teams adapting. That worked in the early 2000s days where there was unlimited testing (which helps if you own your own race track right besides the factory, so much so that Michael Schumacher reportedly took a helicopter from Monaco to Fiorano to try out a different car...

I don't understand why Aaron Gwin hates good tires

I kinda would MTB switched to F1 rules for tyres. There's your set for the weekend, there is your dry, wet and inters. This is the brand everyone is riding, crack on. I know marketing and all but i'd wager bad tyres hold riders back more than any other product.

Ok, so this is pretty interesting. The owner of Vee Tire Co has started to share Intense Factory Racing news, and another employee from Vee has posted on Facebook saying "see you soon". Is this just them getting excited about the season? Or has Intense switched to Vee?

The Operator has seemed a bit behind for a while now to me. The last update to it was the switch to 29" wheels in 2019. I wasn't surprised at all when they axed the DH program or that they've stopped selling DH bikes. Though I am disappointed.

Maybe it’s more just a fit thing. He doesn’t need an oem deal to be riding for a living for a long time. Emil is the new face of the brand. Brandon and cam are the old faces. Brett seems like the type to be highly motivated to express himself as an individual. Norco would be a potential fit for a larger brand. But I think this is potentially the most exciting move besides neko this year.

Connor is riding a Forbidden, this has been talked about for a few months now. Though I think it wasn't known the reason for that decision might be the sale of the brand...

It has been covered. Probably part of the sale that just happened. Dump any extra contracts/dead weight to make the sale.

He's going to whatever brand agrees to OEM spec Title components, that's where his earnings are coming from now, not being a rider. Seems like Trek wasn't in to it and moved on. With Storch gone from Rocky that could be a spot as well, but they are deep in bed with Raceface which could pose some issue.

Very unexpected. Seems like when it comes to freeride and slopestyle most on trek are lifers. Cam McCaul for example.

I see three options for Rheeder: - YT - making use of that MOB money and going back to the brand roots of slopestyle and Freeride - Specialized - getting a big name that can and wants to ride a wide range of bikes but definitely gets screen time at big events like Rampage and Joyride Canyon - just because they dont know what to do with their money except spend it all

I don’t think there was any word of this one spoken here… I certainly didn’t see it coming. His experiments over the last couple years with different suspension options was very interesting, I’m super curious to see who the two-year contract is with.