All

I half wrote an essay before realising it was more of a rant; essentially I think the power wars risk breaking the social contract of responsible land use, where I live we have very small woods and they’re intensively used for recreation. The tacit agreement is that you’re allowed to do you there under your own power, no dirt bikes, no quads etc. If this is perceived to be broken because you can razz around on fire road climbs at 20mph then I reckon land managers will just ban bikes altogether because it would be too difficult to only ban...

I got ~30 minutes each with Avinox and Bosch and am still figuring out what to do with the content (podcast or writing). Unsurprisingly, Bosch is a bit "disappointed" (I'm paraphrasing) in the direction Avinox is pushing the industry. They leaned heavily into trail access and stewardship, and suggested the current crop of high-output motors doesn't jive with the effort they've put into balancing stakeholders and leading the powertrain side responsibly. For fun, I looked back to see if Bosch has ever pushed power or torque limits on their own accord, and from what I can tell the answer is...

AlternateTake: the simplest and most effective solution would be to strip away all governmental regulation, launch an influencer campaign to make riding without a helmet cool, and hope natural selection resolves things before we lose too much access.

That's why they are releasing this now: "Hey boss, can we start teasing the new goods? Not yet, gotta wait until thegromit orders the current version...."

Buying a Santa Cruz usually costs a bit more, but there are some legitimate reasons other than VPP to buy one. Kinematics / ride dynamics are well engineered regardless of linkage used SC geo is usually solid, nothing weird Build quality Ability to purchase replacement parts for many years (try buying parts for a 5 year old frame from any other bike company) Lifetime warranty (one that you can actually count on).

“Hey do you guys have a spare HighGear perimeter seal and lower case bolt o-ring in stock? I’ve got a race this weekend.”

At a shop level, there's just a lack of capability in repairs for electric motors. You'd have to start hiring and training at an entirely new level that does not exist currently and will constantly keep shifting over the new few years. Other than a few weeks long courses, the only real training out there for shop staff is time and the older guy in the bike shop they work with and that guy doesn't exist yet for ebikes. IC engines have had that support structure for 100 years now. Most bike shops are only just now in the last...

You think if internal combustion motors were a new invention now they would be built to be disposable? Why are electronics so disposable, but things like IC motors are not? I have to imagine the material and engineering cost is far lower on electronic motors compared to IC motors right? I still don't know where I stand on e-bikes fully. On the surface the value proposition seems obvious, but once you start really thinking about them compared to normal bikes it starts to get tricky. They are just so much more complicated than a normal bike, kinda ruins the lighthearted...

Another athlete signing from Polygon: POLYGON BIKES SIGNS BRAD SIMMS April 15th 2026 - Polygon Bikes welcomes the signing of athlete Brad Simms to the team for 2026 and beyond. “I’m super excited to be joining Polygon. They have a solid crew of riders doing some interesting things, as well as taking a different approach to making riding more accessible. Looking forward to some more bike time, showing everyone what we’ve got planned.” - Brad Simms Building his reputation in street riding’s most respected names, Brad has amassed a large following through his video content, stamping his mark in BMX...

It may not be a "whole separate sport", but there sure is a "whole separate text thread" for the e-bike riders in my friend circle. Now we rarely have big group rides as the crew is split in two and it's a pain to ride laps with both bike types together. So I'd say its a "whole different discipline" of pedaling a rolling thing with your feet.

Fairdale Elevator Taj's Fairdale Elevator. A breath of fresh air among the never-ending display of electronic tech.

Our new favorite ebike, hands down.

I think there’s more to it than weight. I got to ride the TQ Sight and the Avinox Pivot. I think they’re within 3 pounds of one another, both under 50 and despite the Norco having a longer (high pivot) rear end it was still markedly more playful than the pivot. The 800Wh battery stretched out in the downtube makes a big difference in the inertia you have to overcome to get the front wheel off the ground rotating about the rear axle.

I take this more as neither one of these things are likely to happen. Shaving 20% of the Levo seems likely as does seeing a new enduro anytime soon.

If only someone made a linkage that allowed a longer shock to to be run on the Levo and it yielded 170 mm of travel. That would be wild.

Looks like the new Nomad is coming Tuesday!

Evil having some fun.

Curmudgeon moment incoming, my apologies: This is exactly the reason I don't give a shit about motocross or cars or a million other things. I 100% don't give a shit about numbers. "Oh, but this one can do 150nm of power!" Cool. I don't care. I don't ride a bike looking for the easiest way to do anything. Does it do 150nm of making my will to live stronger? Will it do a 30-second boost mode of shutting my brain off? Is it 1300W of power that'll die in a year and completely brick the bike for two months while...