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This forum at the moment (not actually just poking fun)

The soft undercurrent of a few of these post seems to imply anything made in Asia or engineered by Asians is somehow of lower quality. Engineering really has nothing to do with nationality or ethnicity. You can find high and low quality products everywhere in the world. Quality is a reflection of the decisions made by the brand not the the citizenship or location of the engineers. If you are manufacturing at scale at some point you'll need to work with a factory and their engineers. And you'd have a hard time finding a greater concentration of institutional knowledge and...

I'm 6'6" here and have zero interest in 32in wheel bikes, my XXL Spire is long enough on tight trails. I'm more concerned with the XXL sizes disappearing from lineups at a rather rapid pace with no explanation. I know we are a small market in the XXL frame size. But Transition dropped all XXL sizes for 2026 and their 2027 lineup won't see the size return. Yeti offered the SB140 and SB160 in XXL but are not offering it in LT or MT. It's a shame to see companies pulling back from this size as it nice finally riding...

reminds me of this from my youth.

As the first glimmer of the 32” era dawns, the Industry’s evil plan for 27.5 comes to light: the leftover 27.5 rims are to be stamped and converted into 120t rear sprockets for the new dominant Big Wheelers.

Some poor 5’5 XC racer is gonna sit directly on the tire and go OTB on the first drop they hit

Bike industry: 32" might make sense for tall people! Also the bike industry: Lots of small and medium 32" frames, no XXL frames.

It’s weird - sram can release an ecosystem of groups with proprietary cassettes, derailleurs, chains, rings, that have stratospheric prices and persistent issues (speed, shift calibration limitations, QC issues, cassettes that need to be installed multiple times to settle, battery pins corroding etc etc), plus compromises they try and correct release to release. Maybe that’s ok, it’s up to the rider. At the same time, Shimano releases a new di2 ecosystem that uses their existing(and awesome) cassettes, chains, rings, has the industry leading shifter for ergonomics. A sealed battery compartment, but its perceived to be noisy on some bikes, but...

Maybe I am not getting something, but every time I watch one of Charlie's descents on World Cup or World Champs tracks, it's ”oh, it's not even the right bike and it's not even well prepared” and this time it feels kinda gratuitous, with the clickbaity title. Well, how about being better prepared and riding the course on an actual worthy DH bike? I think it would be much more relevant to the people watching, even from the Average Joe perspective. Average Joes do have DH bikes and ride them. I don't mean to barge into Charlie's planning, but a...

Blasting up fireroads at 20mph is SO sick. So rad.

the gearbox riders actually have a gear to sprint at the finish where regular drivetrain riders look spun out.

Man, has it ever looked this good at VDS? Seems like its been tons of wet the last few years or full on dust bowl. The dirt looks superb right now. How many men and women get into finals for this, its quite a bit more, right?

Vital RAW from today - speeds picking up for sure.

strong disagree on Dark Crystal, hasn't had loam since everyone loam fevered it into oblivion before it was even finished and its been the most overrated trail in town since. Micro climate was in great shape last week, its had some work and was running really good.

All but two of the trees were under 6" if I remember right. The irony in that to me is that in New England they go out and thin out shrubs and saplings every single year at ski areas and sometimes the people helping to do that will make their own secret gladed spot. There are definitely spots where the tiny trees are too tight to just go around.

I think a huge part of this case involved the cutting down of some trees which the enforcers can then ascribe monetary value to. Once that is cataloged the accused can be held responsible for destruction of property and prosecution becomes much easier. So if you do happen to stray onto some unknown property, don't build anything outa wood, and go around the trees, don't cut em down. There was a similar situation around here in the San Juans not long ago with some national forest people coming down very hard on some riders thought to be responsible for building...

Yeah rule number one of illegal trail building is don't use any wood or screws. Besides the fact that it looks more illegal and permanent than piles of dirt, my understanding is that wooden structures of any sort leave the land manager more legally exposed. Crashing and getting hurt on a dirt trail is different in the eyes of the law than crashing and getting hurt on a structure made of imported construction materials that should have been permitted and engineered for safety.

Illegal trails are the life blood of mountain biking. Unfortunately, there is less land in the Northeast than other places so the viable spots are a) more tightly patrolled and b) not on logging land c) home to legal networks often controlled by older riders less down with cool features. There is also an outbreak of Sierra Club Stickuptheasseosis in the region who don't like trails that aren't for walking.