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IMBA is still ragged on for their sidewalks.

Hey man, Charlie and company were selling IMBA SUCKS stickers and captioning videos of people smoothing concrete driveways and building slabs with smarmy comments like "IMBA trail crew building another sanctioned tech trail" like 12-15 years ago, which predates groad bikes and eebs by a solid 8 years or so. Core riders have been complaining about the proliferation of blue flow trails for at least 15 years now, but I guess the boogeyman has changed from IMBA to.... gravel bikes and 32 inch wheeled mountain bikes? If anything I can see the adoption of 32 inch bikes leading to another...

100% this. Think about how heavily regulated baseball bats, golf clubs, and tennis rackets are at the elite level. Do you remember when Tom Brady was accused of playing with under-inflated footballs? Almost every sport that relies on equipment has very strict rules about that equipment to create a more level playing field. There's no such thing as a truly level playing field, of course, but deliberately making it less level from the top-down is typically viewed as a negative in sports. And while arguing about rules seems off-topic here, I think it's extremely on-topic, because the regulatory landscape of...

Don't make @sspomer come yell at us again... Do we have a list of everything expected at Sea Otter this year?

Counter argument: all sports that heavily rely on equipment have pretty strict rules around that equipment. I mean even if you just stay in cycling: different wheel sizes are different classes in BMX, road bikes are 28" and time trial bikes are heavily regulated but with an eye to accommodate small and tall riders.

eebs came online the same time grav did. we want the sport to grow but a lot of new riders see rocks on a trail and wonder why the trail builders didn't smooth them over. new eeb riders with a strava heatmap can get themselves into a lot of trouble...

Haha oh god, and then cycling became the next NBA. I do appreciate that mountain biking by and large doesn’t seem to be a sport that favors a certain body type and would hate for that to change

I just hope all the light/medium technical trails survive this XC Renaissance 32" madness. Ever since gravel bikes got popular, it seems like it has become standard practice to turn any non black diamond trail into a dirt version of a paved road. Kind of seems like everything is either a flow trail/fire road or the gnar gnar these days, and nothing in between.

I’d hanker a guess that most of us here have zero problem with 32 on gravel, rigid mtb, hardtails, and XC race bikes but we’re very wary of it going into disciplines with travel above those. Some of us got bamboozled by 150mm+ 29ers only to have to buy new bikes yet again to get the handling we want out of a mullet bike. We’re tired boss. Our bikes handle really good and we don’t need or want them to be faster. (non racer obv)

This is what companies want. You need a new bike bag, a higher price train ticket, a new car, and a new house for your new 32” bike. The Consumerism dream.

I cannot believe how inane the convo around 32 is. Please, people: you are saying the exact same things they said about 29.

In a scenario where 32" wheels turn out to be a clear competitive advantage for racing and become dominant in XCO, the UCI will have no choice but to ban them for race use, or relegate them to their own separate class. Smaller riders don't have access to the full range of advantages of the larger wheelsize and 32" wheels would therefore facilitate a disproportionate and unfair advantage for larger riders.

Doesn't it seem obvious that the optimal wheelsize for XC racing would be: 1. The biggest wheelsize you can fit into your frame and fork without significantly jeopardizing bike fit, and 2. The biggest wheelsize that's still available with a competitive tire (casing/compound/tread) If you can check both of those boxes, I don't see why it wouldn't be faster than running a smaller wheel. I'm sure we would see diminishing returns for 36", 39", or even 42" wheels (as you mentioned), but diminishing returns are still positive returns. As long as you can build a wheel with featherlight spokes and...

Do motorbikes have engines or motors? Asking for a friend. (also, in some/many/most? languages, there's no distinction between those two words or no such commonly used synonyms exist)

Thanks @kperras, I learned several somethings today!

Unfortunately that is not correct. RC, FC, and WB are all horizontal measurements. CSL is the point to point measurement from center of BB to rear axle, and there's no name (or need) for the equivalent version at the front.

It is refreshing to see a short travel bike without flex stays. This would be top of my list of I was looking for a full suspension down country bike.

Haha, I’m definitely jealous of all the hip drip. But my money can’t buy enough speed and coolness for my old slowness.

You mean the Jerry who would yell at other Jerry’s on blue trails?