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Obviously everyone has riders they watch and are interested in. Out of curiosity, who and what piques your interest? For me, the Norco revamp brought some fun into things. The portraits were ridiculous (and reminded me of the Royal Tennenbaums, which I love). Just... different. Regarding Brage, I'm about as opposite from a viking as you can get (full mennonite heritage over here. Pacifism and peace and farming and all that jazz). Not into the whole black metal thing, but his riding is so head and shoulder above anyone else in the free ride space, he's absolutely one of my...

Here for any Tippie/ Brage collabs.

Those are the betting odds, for sure. What's interesting is that there are at least 6 WC Elite men winners in that start list. Asa, a junior World Cup and World Champion--and on a course, he apparently loves, and barely lost to Jackson last year. Yeah, it's not a deep World Cup field, and yeah, it's been a minute since Aaron has won a big race, and even longer for Gee...but... I would never count ANYONE out of a win, who actually knows how to win. I am really eager to see how Luca does on this kind of course...

current speculation on MTBR is that the Mega and Nomad will be merged into one model with a flip chip to convert between mullet and 29. Makes me kinda sad to see the Megatower nameplate die as an owner of gen 1 and 2. I want to add to the Transition quality discussion: they have some of the worst paint I have ever seen on any bicycle, ever (worked in a shop for 6 years). Absolutely terrible. I like a lot of what their brand does but dang, get better paint please.

Eliminate the loam shelf under the shock and make internal cable guides. Seat tube angle 1* steeper, but that’s just preference, not actually better. I wouldn’t mind the HA being a tad steeper too, but the industry disagrees. Want more travel? Get a smuggler. Want it racier? Go pick from a hundred different choices. Drop weight and it loses its party. Add weight and it’s a Smuggler. Slacken it out and it’s a smuggler. Ditch the flex stay and it’s a Smuggler. Lengthen the rear end and you lose playfulness and technical prowess. Can’t even conceive of a way to...

Brage on Norco!!

All fair points, I'll just take my too-short-for-32"-anyway ass back to my corner...

It’s not a no? Tell me lies, transition ai!

Gillie has to be up there as best all around bike rider dude. Man of many talents.

Don't understand why Spesh didn't publicize that you can run the bike off just the range extender. That setup is really attractive to me since I live close enough to the trails where pedaling is possible, but it's about 30 minutes each way. It'd be amazing to knock out the pavement in turbo and then have a normal analog ride. Nothing like riding mountain bikes out from your house.

Figured I'd share my new Levo SL since I got it built up in time for my up coming trips. Longggg back story: I rode an alloy Stumpjumper 15 the past year that weighed between 37.5-40.5 lbs depending on parts. It definitely made me stronger haha but overall I loved how hard I could ride the bike and still pedal it without blowing myself up. This fall, I kept showing up to group rides being the only one not on an e-bike. It was exhausting to keep up, and I realized I really needed an e-bike. But I love the...

Remy is on Vorsprung suspension. He will pretty much be the R&D rider behind developing a Vorsprung fork. Awesome stuff I reckon'. Also that rig is a absolute stunner.

Something 5Dev shared with me last week that I thought was neat—steel spindles that add around 500g low and central on the bike. They developed them last year with Neko/Frameworks as a clean/simple way to add weight to bikes instead of just slapping a chunk of lead to the bb. Only two options which limits compatibility, but a neat idea nonetheless. Deets - https://www.5dev.com/products/heavy-metal-downhill-spindles?variant=464… - 139mm = 616g - 145mm = 649g - Made from 17-4 stainless steel in San Diego - $199.99, or $100 up-charge with any 5Dev crankset order

Soooooo, anyone got any rumors or should we rename the thread to "Hot takes and arguing"...?

so, after CS length war this turned into 31,8 vs 35 bars discussions… can we please keep it tech RUMORS/INNOVATION in here?! maybe open up a new 31,8 vs 35 thread if such doesn‘t already exist.

Chainstay talk again... This is why we can't have nice things

Way I see it, I pay $20 a month to watch racing. Raw makes the races more fun to watch - it gives you a sense of the track and how the weekend is going. I’m willing to pay Warner bros. Why wouldn’t I be willing to pay vital for Raw?

Matt Jones is a smart guy. He's beyond just being a rider with a Redbull helmet and established himself as a personality they can use across other sports. He made himself valuable, whereas Remi and Laurie, although sick riders, didn't do that. Unless you're Jackson Goldstone or Gracey level racing, I think you need to do more for the brand to be kept around.

If you ever rode bikes, that were in mountains, or woods, and jumped a lot, or made curvey turns and felt good riding said bikes in said mountains or woods, until dark, at any point in your life: brage. Get that trek deal and get that money and get those bontrager wheels popping and JUST KEEP SMASHING. Yeah. We like brage. And Sam Hill. GTFO.

I'm now anticipating content from Remi that is more Remi, less RB, which won't be a bad thing. Aside from sponsorships ending for reasons that any brand would have to sever ties for, I like to think anyone that leaves RB is pursuing a less restricted way to enjoy their sport and impact their world. Pretty interesting to case study big changes in other industries, like Tiger Woods and the cheating scandal. Some sponsors jumped ship immediately, others stayed because the action didn't explicitly go against their brand values. All companies have a different MO when it comes to athletes...