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Unless something has changed when I lived in Portland the homeless and crime problems was an afterthought for 90 percent of people. Ftf summer super d has a place in my heart.

Crazy news from Portland, Oregon: longtime MTB anchor Fat Tire Farm is closing after 40 years in business. For me, this news felt like it came out of nowhere. Obviously the bike industry is hurting, but the Farm has weathered a lot of storms, and every time I go in they seemed to be going from strength to strength. They were probably the best, healthiest bike shop I've ever been to, and it's a huge loss to the Portland riding community. They supported local trail work, ran their own summer race series, had their own pro suspension service and tuning...

This is a little over the top, no? Did gravel hurt you? I agree it's a bummer that we have little domestic coverage, but have you looked at the economics of such coverage? I have been so happy with my paid subscription to Escape Collective and will continue to pay the cost of less than a new set of tires to support true journalism in the bike space(no dig vital). While I still subscribe to MTB magazines, the writing is unfortunately subpar, and EC is a much better investment, IMO. They also just hired another American mtb journalist to cover...

i meant more just to discuss the state of cycling media.

Slight derail: IMO the Escape Collective is doing a bang-up job w/ the subscription model; for $99/year you get an incredible amount of content (mostly road/gravel focused atm) in multiple formats. I originally joined for Dave Rome's stuff (I'm a bit of a tool nerd) but have gradually started diving into the rest of their work and it's excellent. ON top of that, not having ads makes SUCH a difference; they're so ubiquitous I think I don't really notice them but I do, and being able read a long-form article without ads competing for my attention is delightful. /fin

That was an interesting read. Thanks for posting.

Caley Fretz (long-time cycling journalist, primarily on the road side of things) has a great piece up on Escape Collective about the Outside media empire's self-immolation. Not directly related to companies that make & sell bikes, but it does touch on the topics of VC and scale that have been discussed a lot in this thread. https://escapecollective.com/theres-a-wildfire-outside/ Escape Collective also has a story up about the closure of The Service Course, a high-end road-focused shop in Girona. Surprise, surprise: that story also involves outside investors who pushed the business to expand dramatically in anticipation of cashing out on their investment...

I really love these projects, especially because they always prove that "retro" colourways still look great on modern frames. Every time, they make me check what the current colourways are because surely I just don't remember how good the modern colours are and no every time the retro colourway wins. Oh and RM should build that alloy Pipedream bike with the linkage plates.

Kate Courtney is in Brazil already, posted a ride 31/3 with a pic of what I guess is her regular BC40 with red SIDs. Yesterday 1/4 posted a ride called new bike day, she’s Called the bike BC40 sparkle, can only see that it’s got purple-ish forks; and has otherwise kept the bike hidden. Possibly new, possibly just a custom paint job, possibly new rockshox stuff about to be revealed?

26 ain't dead - for real! https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/26-aint-dead-starling-cycle….

I thought this comment, from the Escape Collective's Cape Epic coverage, was interesting and wonder how it stacks uo against Fox Neo... " A few riders using Flight Attendant had buttons in highly convenient locations and noted the need to be able to quickly unlock the suspension when a smaller bump or rut was coming up as the system, as good as it is, seemingly cannot react quickly enough for their needs. "

I'm expecting a levo LT to come out with a 230x65(ish) shock, after the x2 comes out, as it apparently shares an air spring with the float and float x genie. And no new kenevo either.

Taken with a potato

They dropped everything. No new cassettes or chains it seems.

Both air cans are referred to as EVOL LV in the specs. Example specs from an X2 and Genie… 2026, FLOAT X2, F-S, K, Parallel Rzy, No Lever, Evol LV, 250, 75, CS70, RL60, Rezi B80, No Decal 2025_24, FLOAT GENIE, F-S, K, 2-Pos Adj, EVOL LV, Specialized, SJ Pro/SW (S2-S6), 210, 55, SSC003, SSR01, CML, 0.7 E, 0.2 S, 1x 0.4 X