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Link glide/Cues is down right amazing and the cost of the groups is less than a transmission derailleur. We were having issues with someone blasting through cassettes and one bike brand's high torque output skipping under super heavy loads. Linkglide groups solved those and many other issues this year. My Rootdown is getting linkglide this winter for Christmas so I never have to worry about it again.

Smells like MTBR in here.

I've done the same - 12S XT to an XT/Deore based, 10S linkglide mix.

You say that, but I pulled a fresh XT 12 speed drivetrain off a bike a month ago in favour of 10 speed deore link glide. 100% I'd pull transmission too, no doubt in my mind.

I consider this a win, a statement from the Propain man himself on the other site regarding cable routing

How so precisely? The pod has possibly the worst ergonomics ever ( previous axs was nice ) Weak clutch Overpriced Overweight The main feature ( you can stand on it ) it’s completely useless as you never get side impacts but always front to back So far almost everyone I know that own it, and I work in a bike shop, has had trouble with it, either too much chain slap and had to run a chain tensioner pulley like the old dh bikes, or deralieur just broke down randomly, no signal, deralieur dead. While the warranty is great, still...

The whole wireless only thing is really representative of what bothers me about the bike industry. Changing things for the sole reason to sell us something more expensive. Why would they not put a small hole in the head tube and in the chain stay, can fit little plugs in it if they arent needed. Its different than say 1x drivetrains or dropper posts where there is a clear and undeniable benefit. What is better about a wireless drivetrain vs a properly tuned cable one? We get rid of a $3 cable and cable housing and add a battery?

Yeah when my wireless mouse doesn’t work that’s a good thing because that means I’m physically at work and can’t keep working, and work fuckin blows. When my wireless derailleur dies I’m super bummed because I actually want it to work.

Not if they have a pile of front triangles laying around

Cant wait till they're $1200 bucks on buy/sell

100% ^^^ So many opinions on here presented as absolutes. Everything is a compromise and a skilled rider will compensate. I won't say it's impossible to make a "bad" bike these days, but it's pretty hard. Both of these bikes look pretty stellar to me.

Weird the ESTA is steeper in small, then slacker in m/xm, then steeper again in the big sizes. Usually they just say it's the same across the board or steepens slightly as size goes up. Must be for rear wheel clearance. As to the short cs/long cs thing, I'll just say I wouldn't want all brands to be on the short train or long train. Why should every brand go long? That would be boring. Options are better for consumers on the whole.

Just like the UCI website.

noticed that the base model 134 comes in with an MSRP of under $2k USD. definitely a budget build, but IMO its good to see that there are proper bikes in that price range for new riders looking at their first bike.

Curious, I thought they look like a good iteration on the previous model Carbon and alu alu has external cables, carbon id fully guided, no headset cable routing geo looks good, shortish CS and WB, should be a nimble bike full water bottle, accessory mount, frame protection looks good good colours, aesthetically they look quite good, Konas simple faux bar. Personally, the brake choices seem underwhelming, but that has been Konas MO for a while now. Other than frame storage, what more would you like from a couple trail bikes?

Sticky Deluxe. And bring back the Humuhumu-Nukunuku-A-Pua'a

Spoke to some of the Kona UK team that were at the UK bike show a few weeks ago - they were showing one of the 153s and some other new models (these to be announced hopefully August/September). These were all ready to be shipped from Taiwan months ago, but Kent had held them up (guess not paying up) - UK distributor was in talks to get some of these but then sale back to original owners have unlocked the shipments.

I assume these new Kona's were in the pipeline before the original owners re acquired it. It's only been a few months so I would give them some time to work on new things. I think they should relaunch the Sticky name with a fun and playful gravity focused bike a la the Specialized Status.

Or you're Chaz Maz and you just throw on the same shock from your old Stumpy and call it good.

Thanks for asking! It would be hard to say much positive about a single part on this bike (maybe a Chromag pedal fan gives the Scarabs a pass); the shock is laughable, and you can tick parts off finding every one less good than what's offered today. But as a whole it worked surprisingly well and I loved it. If I have an insight here (and I'm not sure I do), it's that bikes I've ridden since then have phenomenal sell sheets and each individual component has a great marketing story, a history of winning, a legion of online fans...