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I just reached out to Fox to better understand why you can't purchase the parts and the singular "special" tool to work on the damper. What you know, but maybe not everyone reading this is that most Fox shocks have an unique tool for this type of operation. So yes, unique to our shock, but not unique in the Fox aftercare/service world. I'll let you know what Fox comes back with and if we can't get it sorted quickly, assuming you actually want to work on these shocks, I'll ship you the tool. Just DM me your address. With that...

@Spomer, can we please deviate the toe-clip topic to another thread, and make it in a slightly bigger default font?

I have bikes with both headset types, they all work just fine, and they play no role in my bike decisions.

half baked comment. obviously luck can be a major factor in downhill racing. but he also was seemingly the most prepared for that race on that day. winning doesn't happen by accident, even on a track you know well in conditions you excel in.

To be fair there's been talk of them folding for years.

So brakes, rims, your cable ends, as far as complexity I wanted to bring some perspective. I’m an engineer and have worked in consumer goods manufacturing my whole adult life; “Simple” stuff you use every day at home. Most anything is easy to design in the grand scheme of things. Manufacturing anything on the other hand is hard. Everything you use everyday, I guarantee you is 100x more difficult and complex to produce then you can imagine. Some of these simple assemblies we ride probably meant a team of people worked months and beat their head on a wall to...

Looks like I'm late to the party since I've been on vacation. Brakes are definitely not easy. Between custom seals, custom tools, and some necessary knowledge that isn't widespread, good brakes take a lot. I would say they are either third or fourth most difficult thing on a bike behind the frame itself, the fork/shock, and, depending on specific design, the dropper. Some droppers are pretty simple, though. Frames are only on that list because doing a full blown production run requires tons of testing and the tooling is more complex. Brakes definitely are not something that anyone with a...

Thanks for the kind words. Sincerely appreciated. I also wanted to thank everyone who has taken time to particpate in this thread. In a world full of internet dumpster fires, trolling, dunking and devolving online discussions, at minimum I've found the willingness of the collective to have a meaningful, fun, civil discussion to be worthwhile in and of itself, regardless of how right or wrong we all may be. I don't know much, but I know the more this happens, the better off it appears we all are. HNY everyone! Cheers and thanks!

Lots of thoughts to share RE: Pierer Mobility AG (KTM), but I'm a bit pinched on time. I'll try and post something bigger later. If I got serious and had a podcast this would certainly be a whole episode. Few things... Where to get information: If you want to follow along from the "horse's mouth" always start with Pierer Mobility's IR page - https://www.pierermobility.com/en/newsroom - most everything outside of this is an opinion on this, a CGPT reread of this or some other basterdization of the real press release. What this means: Its too early and I don't know European...

Good point! However it’s also completely immaterial considering the context of what we are discussing. The big point here is KTM bicycles and e bikes have no connection to Pierer Mobility. We are going to make lots of these kinds of mistakes in this thread. It’s a fun discussion with lots of painting with broad strokes and running a little loose. I don’t have time to triple check every source I use. That said I’m always happy to have more eyeballs jump in to steer toward truth and am happy to say “whoops I was wrong” (which I am here!)...

If you really want to do this properly, hit me up, and I can help you do it, as I've written and run plenty of awkward tests like this for work. The key will be to be able to correlate subjective impression of kick back with whatever data you're recording, before you start changing things. I'd be starting by calling power meter manufacturers like 4iiii to see if you can get the unfiltered signal from both cranks, and get a good way of logging at something like 100Hz. You need to identify conditions which repeatedly demonstrate kick back, whether that's...

Got it. I figured as much while thinking about this at lunch (nerd). I think you'd have to sample the chain itself so like someone mentioned previously some sort of sensor that measures force at the chain. We have that on our Dyname motor with a Hall Effect sensor hidden and some programming in order to get a readout on the chain forces (for purposes below, while pedaling but it is also affected by PBK while descending).

I wonder if the Garmin pedals would give you the readouts you are looking for.

Or you could make as many bikes as you want, force your dealer network to pre-buy bikes ahead of time with the promise of a small volume discount, and then they get stuck with your overstock sitting on their books and sales floors. Win win!

Mechanically speaking, nothing is gained with a 15mm axle over a 20mm. What we gained by going with the (mechanically inferior) 15mm axle is the rapid and widespread adoption of thru-axles across all mountain bikes, then road bikes, then gravel and CX bikes. If the axle choices in 2012 (or whenever) were viewed as a binary choice between lightweight XC-oriented QR axles and a heavy DH-oriented 20mm thru axle, I think it would have taken a lot longer for product managers to go out on a limb and spec better forks and axles. 15mm axles gave product managers needed cover...

Its like my Patagonia vest channels me to the board when there is stuff like this for me to write about Per the usual, this post got a little long. In it, I unpack the valuation of Rad Power Bikes relative to broader economic movements and loosely tie it into the Brembo/Ohlins deal. If this isn't interesting to you, skip this! RE; Rad Power Bikes valuation - We know how much money Rad Power has raised but we don't know how much equity they have sold hence we really don't know what the valuation is (at least as far...

I think the M&A is good overall. There are too many large bike manufacturers and not enough small manufacturers (imo). The consolidating of the large manufacturers should alloy more efficient investment and improvement in technology and materials construction, which is really where MTB is heading. Geometry is cheap to engineer, scaling 3D printed yokes, new carbon technology etc isn't, and requires big players with big investment. Having said that, the growth in boutique offerings is the necessary part to offset this, and we've seen the trickle down in materials tech benefit this micro brands. I.e frameworks design, Privateer, Airdrop etc...