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"The bike design for the person who would drive their bike out to a trailhead to pose for a photo on the hood of their small suv." - Henry Ford

I love cake.

I feel a lot of people that would complain about the gearbox efficiency making a perceivable difference to their enduro or all mountain ride would be the same people with overbuilt wheels, fox 38, cushycores, and downhill casing tires for multiple blues a maybe a black diamond trail for their saturday ride. Then finish it off with pounding back 4 IPAs and some cake later that day.

Tangentially related, but it annoys me that most 4-bar designs run bearings in that rear pivot instead of bushings. That location gets showered with water and grime, and they have always been in a disgusting state whenever I've serviced the bearings on the 3 4-bar bikes I've owned. I recall reading somewhere that bushings are ideal for locations that consistently see small angle rotations, where bearings are better for larger angles (so that the bearings actually move further in the race). Main pivot and rocker/upper link - absolutely bearings. Rear pivot - bushings. I mean, a lot of brands are...

A bit of shameless promotion, but hopefully it's relevant. I just put out a podcast episode where me and Alan Milway chat through all the 2025 team moves (confirmed and rumoured). Hopefully it's an interesting watch/listen. https://youtu.be/Mu0JAhGceB8 or https://www.downtimepodcast.com/team-moves-2025/ Clearly this forum gets a mention! Thanks to everyone here who keeps the rumour fire burning, I personally love it!

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...

is the mechanic wearing a paper bag!?

If that is the gearbox bike he gets points for blacking out where the derailleur cage would be...

Anyone else feel like the rumored Loris to Commencal would be boring?

If you made two near identical bikes with identical anti-squat, but one had a 26" and the other had a 29" rear wheel, the 26" version will have a more rearward axle path and lower pedal kickback due to the bb (and therefore the main pivot/virtual pivot) being higher up with respect to the axle. It will also be more neutral under braking.

Are there any reviews out for the Forbidden Supernought yet? It was released end of last year, yet I haven't seen any of the major outlets do a review yet.

Should be called Hawk2a

I asked ChatGPT what Sesame Seed was talking about and to be okay with being brutally honest and distasteful if it wants. Enjoy: This comment seems to be a convoluted attempt at drawing parallels between professional bike racing and motorsports, particularly Formula 1, but it’s a jumbled mess of loose associations and misplaced terminology. Let’s break it down brutally: 1. Chain Drive Skepticism : The commenter kicks off with skepticism about recent changes to bike racing due to “chain drive,” but gives no real details or context for what exactly they are skeptical about. It feels like they are grasping...

I read this twice and I still have no idea what you intended to say other than jaded garbage. You definitely have truly lackluster diction.

With suspension kinematics converging in the Crab Quadrant, I'm surprised that companies aren't touting minimum brakeaway force figures. Force to get everything moving, lateral rigidity, and overall progression would give me a better idea of how a bike really feels vs a bunch of graphs-IMO. Of course you can get more info from all those graphs, but they don't seem super useful at a glance to most people IMO.

So Evil bikes and e13 were the same company around 2000-2003 years? just diferent name brand? I didn't know that 😀