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LEGACY of the 38?? That shit is like 5 years old, this isn't some 20 year anniversary edition or something.

Sure, but It's a matter of scale. Does this look as impressive? (Honestly, still looks kinda impressive but my point stands)

These guys learning from the likes of NVIDIA how to make a graph look impressive. "Start the X-axis at, say, 170 so our bar looks 3-times as long as the competition's"

This post was inspired by Trek’s questionably titled “ age is just a number” post from yesterday, which seems to have been written with heavy assistance from an LLM. “Some stories in mountain biking aren’t about podiums or KOMs — they’re about dirt, sweat, and the people who’ve been shaping our rides for decades” “But they didn’t just scratch a few fun lines into the dirt—they helped breathe life into an entire valley.” “And they weren’t just moving bikes—they were moving the culture forward.” “Their work didn’t just put Molini on the map—it lit a spark that helped ignite one...

Yes, I don't think there's much chance of much standardization happening. But if any were to occur, this seems like the moment. There is absolutely zero chance of a single standard emerging, we don't have a standard for seatpost diameter, headsets or bottom brackets, and those share function much more closely than ebikes with light motors, heavy motors, integrated batteries, integrated gearbox, idler, suspension pivot, etc...

This. Sram was making wheels to sell more stuff to bike makers. Why in the world would they cut the biggest slice of the pie? Plus integration wise they are the best positioned to increase that. Hell, Sram entering complete bike business makes more sense than exiting ebikes. Also, why is DJI entering ebike market so obvious?

If we look at motorcycles, as @jeff.brines also likes to point out often, there's a lot more integration overall compared to what we have. Bikes are a lot more similar to old desktop PCs that are also slowly going the way of the dodo in favour of more specialized, integrated products. I fear bikes will sooner go this way as well as opposed to a standard ebike motor mount. And I mean it when I say bikes above, all bikes, not ebikes. Even if you had a universal motor mount standard, you'd still need to standardise the battery mount and...

It was the same with drivetrains and geometries 10 years ago. It will smooth out.

I would think the rate of progression in ebike motors has got to be a product manager nightmare.. You start a new bike project with the latest, greatest, bestest motor on the market.. Half way through the development process, someone comes out with something new that makes the system you chose seem like old news... So, your new bike is viewed as off the back on the day it launches... I'll take jobs I'm glad I don't have for $100 please..

I don't necessarily love Orbea, but having the ability to make the Rallon either a world cup level DH bike or an enduro bike is pretty cool. Not exactly a value proposition if you're swapping suspension and drivetrain, but I still like that it can be done. I also really like what Shimano is doing with CUES/Linkglide. Affordable and durable combined with good and reliable performance interests me way more than a $3000 wireless drivetrain. If I was building up a new bike, I'd probably go with XT Linkglide 1x11.

It’s funny to me, because the very thing on that thread that people were lambasting YT and Canyon for is the thing that I find exciting: bikes that perform well and represent a good value proposition. Fancy magical linkages, outlier kinematics, adjustable geometry, bleeding edge race tech… overrated. Give me a bike with surprisingly good component specs that works well for its intended use case at a good price point. I’m getting a little turned on just typing that. EXCITING!

I'm probably repeating myself but I still see more electric full suspension MTBs on footpaths around the lake rather than in the hills because they're a good way for well-heeled retirees to get out and about in comfort. The balance has been noticeably shifting over the last year or two, though.

A $20,000 electric bowling ball. Don’t ever change Specialized…

Spotted over on Pinkbike -- Ronan Dunne running his tuned mass damper in a novel location. (More like a tuned ass damper, am I right? Sorry, I'll see myself out.)

As someone who does a lot of train and car travel with bikes and stores my bike indoors in my small London apartment, I find the longer modern MTBs give me more issues when traveling around and also take up more space at home. Bigger wheels are only going to make this worse, its certainly going to make me pause before 'upgrading' in the future.

Put the front wheel tight between your legs and twist the bars to rack the fork - if it creaks it’s the CSU. If not it’s the headset.

I don't understand the hate for e-bikes (pedal assist,) but I can totally get behind a ban on throttle-controlled e-motorcycles on bicycle trails. And this is coming from a motocross dude who also rides MTB. If it will go fast, spin the tire and uses a throttle, it's a motorcycle; It really doesn't matter if there are cranks and pedals attached to it if they don't have to be utilized. I'm also interested in seeing what's going to happen with these. From a legality standpoint, most of the trails around here aren't really policed by any authority, so it's like...

Here’s a quick update: The design is 95% complete — just a few small parts left to fine-tune. The finite element simulation is done and looks promising. Some shapes had to be optimized to reduce stress concentrations, and we’ve achieved a solid safety factor (to be confirmed with real-world and bench testing, of course). The rear triangle has been tuned to deliver the compliance we’re aiming for. That compliance will be adjustable thanks to an interchangeable bridge on the chainstays. We’re super excited and can’t wait to see the prototype come to life!