All

Long time lurker, first time poster here. For some background I’m an aerospace composites engineer and spent several years in Advanced Product Development with an emphasis on environmentally friendly materials. There’s so much to get into on this topic and if folks are interested I’d love to start a dedicated thread on materials and environmental impacts. The TLDR is, carbon fiber as a green product on its own is a fallacy. The raw fiber production may result in a certain level of carbon sequestering, but the process is still so energy intensive I wouldn’t call it an environmental positive. As...

How do we like this?

Can check out PB right now. lol at Kaz citing Skye Schillhammer, 'Transition’s marketing director and parking lot supervisor' with the spy shot in Transition's hq.

a 29/27.5 mullet already drives my OCD up the wall. a 32 mullet makes me want to just close my comput

it's weird that they'd discontinue the Mega but keep the Nomad though. Surely they sell more Megas.

This looks like a sick bike for someone who is super sendy and very talented.

Can we get some kind of chat/interview with RMU? Curious on many of their decisions with this bike. Superboost, hp flex stay (I assume very close design to the pivot phoenix) among others. Not saying one standard is better than the other; just curious why they did what they did, especially in the current bike market.

Just passing this along: The Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series second race of the series is this weekend at Mountain Creek Bike Park in New Jersey. Last year's winners in New Jersey were Aaron Gwin and current US National Champ Kailey Skelton. $4,000 first place prize for Pro winners. Juniors can choose to race in the Pro class. Last year Aletha Ostgaard raced in 3 of the Series races and took two firsts and a second. With a 3-week gap between the Monster Energy race and the World Cup in Loudenvielle, maybe more World Cup racers will enter this week.

Squamish enduro from yesterday. Local race but a few EDR racers use it as a preseason benchmark with a couple of National champs and the women’s world champ lining up. Props to the filmers as this got posted 2 hours after the podium. Jonathan Helly and Elly Hoskins took the top steps.

If they're going to have a remote studio in the UK (which sucks) that at least means they could get Brits to commentate for way cheaper than having to fly them out to a race. Rob Warner, Rachel Atherton, Gee Atherton, Brendan Fairclough, Ratboy are all right there. They all either have way more commentating skill, have raced more recently than 1200 BC, or both. Ric wasn't that bad, but was definitely not "good", and whoever the new guy is was atrocious. He just repeated what Ric said, and said "when I was racing when the wheel was first invented"...

Calibrated Ocular Comparator is another good one. ROFL Re: People complaining about Shimano 12sp might need to put the wrench down and step away from the bike. I clean my cassette in the ultrasonic every few weeks. I have 1500miles on my current XT and that lock ring has been loosened and tightened a few 100 times, it's in just as good of shape as it was when new. 1-piece cassettes are nice, but they also are either light and expensive or cheap and stupid heavy... If you struggle to line up some rings and spacers you might not want...

Microspine drivers are a blight against humanity and should die in a fire along with the stupid plastic spacer they require to prevent Shimano cassettes from creaking like a haunted house. The only thing that might be worse than the microspine interface and its woefully anemic, made of cheese, lock ring might be the actual cassettes themselves which in the year of our lord 2026 still are half singe piece pinned garbage that falls apart and half stamped metal plates with spacers. Seriously, 12 speed shimano stuff is the most disappointing experience I've ever had with a drivetrain. I hate...

I would hesitate to call the XD driver good, it works just fine and allowed for the 10 tooth cog but in all honesty, my experience with microspline has been far better. Feels more secure, and I like having the engagement along nearly the entire cassette rather than just at the end, and not having the cassette have to be completely one piece or riveted together is not a problem. Sram has killed it in bringing new product to market quickly, in being the one stop shop for OEM, and their marketing is definitely working, but I won't say that...

Not sure what "actual data" is required but...let's use maven (noted red) and motive (noted green), both sram brakes, as an example. At the start of the stroke, the motives have a lighter pull to start biting, so there's a data point for that (bottom left green).The mavens are going to take a bit more to get going, so bottom right red point notes that. At an arbitrary high force, the mavens will generate more braking force than the motives - you can base that either on many of whom have rode both, or the simple fact that motives have...

I agree with that analysis for almost every type of component but I would have thought O-Chain would be an outlier. I can't see that many OEMs putting O-Chain on bikes other than DH bikes, primarily because it's a large cost they can cut that a non-enthusiast consumer that walks into a shop will not notice if it's a regular chainring instead, but will notice the extra couple hundred dollars in cost. DH bikes are also so much less of the overall market share, and most of them are bought by hardcore enthusiasts that are likely to customize the components...

Dude you’re not kidding. every garage in my neighborhood has a couple bikes in it and ZERO people give a shit about how I finally found a Doubledown Aggressor. I’ve even caught a couple of them look at me weird when I’m checking my wife’s e-scooter tires with a digital gauge. Retired Coast Guard neighbor looked me straight in the eyes and said he’d never heard of the Denim Destroyer. Come ON dude now you’re playing games

I've been to Primoz' neck of the woods and would like to add that: You should absolutely go to that neck of the woods to ride if you get a chance. Primoz raced cross country for years before switching to longer travel bikes, and was fitter than me when we rode together. He's a great host and I cannot recommend Bled Cream Cake enough. However, I would not recommend eating it right before a 87 F/31 C mountain bike ride with Primoz. Primoz, I'm still right about heavier tire casings and softer compound. Fight me. Most power-based training plans emphasize...

I dont have an IG account but from what i've seen elsewhere according to the comments this wont use a standard rear hub? Sounds like a great idea, the MTB community never raises pitchforks to a new hub

I wrote this on Pinkbike but will crosspost here to as I firmly believe ABS should not be involved in WCDH. I'm all for innovation in DH and I am absolutely fine with electronics in suspension but I strongly believe that ABS has no place in competitive DH. Braking ability and threshold braking are massively important skill that do separate riders. Having a system that would theoretically allow a rider to just full pull brake but not lock the wheels would be a huge advantage on most tracks and certainly would for low grip tracks or conditions. Formula One as...