All

Oh my gosh there are some negative Nancies in here. I’d rather pay even $22 and know it’s helping to pay athletes than throw money at WB and MAYBE get to see race runs that aren’t interrupted by literally anything else they think has higher ROI. I bet every single person reading this thread spends more than $11 every time they go to a coffee shop. That stupid (delicious) cardamom latte could help pay for high quality DH racing. I know I’ll be paying for this, come join me on the virtual couch.

There are definitely some questionable things out there in terms of product manager decisions and some questionable false economy choices (aluminum nipples is a good example). There is also a mild amount of QA/QC and general quality issues still present in this industry... But if I can offer perspective on the journalist comment. " I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"..." That's being said because it's pretty much true. 16 years ago, there was a large majority of bikes that were complete shit. Nearly every...

I don’t think Lina is going anywhere unless she wants to. You don’t support a rider through jrs and then not give them a season or 2 in elites

As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper covers on bearings to shit geo, etc. When clients ask what bikes I'd recommend I'm left scratching my head lol. It feels like the marketing guys decide most stuff, the product managers don't ever ride and/or the engineers are terrible. How is it that ebikes are still specced with EXO tyres, 35mm forks and 12 speed non ebike specific cassettes??? Why does DT Swiss still make straight pull spoke and aluminium nipple wheels??? I...

Weight weenieism is alive and well in my group of riding buddies. We bought up all the remaining mechanical XX1 Eagle gear as T-type was taking over. All on Blurs that are under 22lbs. One with a sub 16lb Mondraker Podium. I'm sure this varies by local and riding style, but I think the move by SRAM and Shimano to heavy electronic parts has been a boost to the boutique component market, like Madrone, Garbaruk, Darimo, etc.

Hey all – thanks for the great discussion and thoughtful feedback, it’s been great to follow. Just to jump in with some info from our side: The Chain Damper was originally developed for aggressive DH and winch-and-plummet style Enduro riding—especially the kind we do here in the UK with steep climbs and even steeper descents. The standard spring setup is tuned to perform best when descending hard, where the damper really shines and this is why you'll see the unit on a number of WC bikes this season. That said, we totally get that not everyone rides the same terrain...

That’s it, Shaft driven bikes. Shafted Purse 2028, I’m calling it now.

I love that 1199 has a legit sense of place, a few tough pedals means its true Sea to Sky riding. Watching it you're thinking "yeah, that's Whistler." Riding there is rarely a steep rip top to bottom. It's all about linking interesting sections and slabs, often with traverses or grunts between them. Everyone, when you're in Whistler go do at least one day on the valley trails. Climb the flank or the road up to the Blackcomb trails. It'll hurt, but it'll be amazing. Mountain biking.

Baggage handlers in Montreal hating life as the downhill teams fly in and the road teams fly out from the world champs.

After being in the ground for the race, big props to the juniors, especially junior women. Riding the track early, in the worst conditions all week. Even for their finals start it was cold and the ground slow, especially in the shade. Rock garden was slick. Watching them make the triples and send through the slow ground, being smaller and keeping speed was impressive. Elite men definitely faster but the track conditions got better through the day.

I hope they don’t bring protected riders back in. Make every rider work for every race qualifying and finals. It was disappointing to not see Finn and Jackson race yesterday, but having the three Canadians get in q2 and the other riders that did put it together is great for the sport. Big props to Body Burke making it through q2 after that q1 crash.

As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated in DH to determine if a course exit granted an advantage or not? It's something moto does where they basically make a gut call on whether or not you accelerated off track. And with the poles thing, so often we see riders hike a bike to get around a pole which is... I mean that run is DONE. It was already screwed by the fall or pole miss but, obviously there's no incentive for...

I expect the crowd to get a bit worse as the word spreads that this is a weekend to attend. Similar as to what happened with Crankworx at it's peak when a significant portion of the crowd were not bikers or there for biking. This weekend felt very "core", and therefore both respectful and animated.