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“Dampener” is the verbiage equivalent of counting clicks from open and helmets with removable chin bars.

What a dampener may look like

Actually my Relay is the best handling bike I've ever ridden. The 430 watt battery is plenty for a several hour long ride. I don't care one bit about the mediocre controller or the display, as all it does is give me an idea of how much juice I have and I usually notice it 2-5x over a several hour ride. It has more than enough power for my needs. The motor is reliable enough and they are rebuildable for a couple of hundred and last a few years anyways. Electric motors are very old technology and don't have room...

I totally agree, I have a set of WAO Unions that are still perfectly straight after 2 seasons of riding, and I prefer the steeper tech trails. Also just ordered a set of the convergence wheels w/hydra hubs for $1263 out the door with their march madness sale. The Raceface wheels looks nice but don't see any reasons to move from WAO especially for the price difference. I would imagine most people buying these wheels are probably buying them for their strength/lifetime warranty moreso than trying to shave grams off their bike build.

Maybe trying to meet a weight goal? At this point it feels like some of these production "enduro" wheels are more suited to the trailbike market than they are bigger bikes. That price too, ouch. $1600, why would anyone buy these over WAO at that cost?

28h straight pull is an immediate disqualifier. Unfortunate.

I’ve begun to notice that by and large (with some exceptions) the relationship between the number of people who over analyze bike suspension/geo and are always fiddling with gear is inversely proportional to the number of people who are talented riders.

Robert from The Loam Wolf here. I was the one who broke the Scalpel, and I’m not surprised I did - overshot the landing of a large jump for an XC bike, landing in the pocket between the landing and the flat ground after it. Huge bottom out. I corrected Kaz at Pinkbike’s quote - he had flatteringly guessed me to be 190lbs, whereas I am 220lbs. Nothing fishy. I wholeheartedly believe the Scalpel is fit for purpose and that it was my fault! Was having far too much fun and got carried away.

What really bothers me is that Lewis brakes CHOSE to MIMIC the way Trickstuff brakes look. Hope/Trickstuff/Intend/Sram/Shimano/Hayes/TRP all look pretty distinguishable, even between some of their own models. It's not how brakes are made is a secret anymore. You have a lever that pushes a piston that pushes fluid that pushes another set of pistons. Sure you can add cams here, adjustments there, play with leverage ratio, fancy cnc, parts, it doesn't really change the way brakes work fundamentally. Not discrediting the manufacturing of these brakes in any way. For a set of the more pricy Lewis brakes you can...

China definitely doesn't care, but we can decide if we want to buy them.

First, it's not "xenophobic" to try to avoid buying MIC goods if the issue is philosophical and political. China is our enemy, Xi is an authoritarian communist who commits genocide. It was a horrible mistake to partner with China and offshore our manufacturing to them in the first place. Second, Taiwan and China are not the same country despite what Xi thinks. There's a MASSIVE difference between the two and if you won't buy Taiwanese goods then that may have an underlying xenophobic reason. Last, Lewis is a direct rip off of another company's IP. Not everyone is ok with...

I don't think it's xenophobia as much as it is that they appear to be a straight rip-off off of Trickstuff. Will be interesting to see if DT Swiss feels the same way (and does something about it).

They glued theirs on.

The man on the left has his top of the fork showing. Says Kashima on it.

Dang that’s a sweet looking Nomad

learnt so much about welding.. i need some mods to a trailer i have.. any takers you guys really love welding and brakes..

Welding is the biggest liability and point of failure on an Al frame. Avoiding welding removes a factor that relies on human skill and is hard to control, although before the switch to C, Al welding and forming was getting much better, the top end Al frames ~10 years ago or so were pretty nice and it looked like many welds were automated. These days though, Al is made heavy and cheap. I agree with Primoz about 7075, UTS is much higher, this can definitely be used to increase reliability or cut weight. I don't understand the thought that 7075...

Both of you…

Trickstuff’s hose ends are fully rebuildable, the barb screws into the hose and the outer part of the fitting at the same time. Since the Lewis brake is a straight up copy, I guess they went all in and copied every detail…

CAN WE MOVE ON FROM BRAKE LEVER FEEL PLEASE?