All

really? i always felt that the latest super gravity is very stiff and has a damp feeling compared to double down, Michelin enduro chasing, Conti enduro which are more soft and supple both by touch and on the trail i could always run 2psi less in the back compared to all the other chasing mentioned, always as a rear. tried all pressures on all these but settled on 24psi with the super gravity ( both Hans and Mary ) and 26 on all others as anything below that i was hitting the rim on rocks.

My big bike spends more time in loose rocks, rather than the hard pack where I ride the trail bike. The Albert just didn't have the edge knobs, the spacing, nor the overall width to 'bite' into the really loose stuff. The MM Radial works notably better on this stuff. As did the Assagai, the E22 Soft, the Mazza 2.6, etc. But I LOVE the Albert up front on my trail bike. It's really fast for the traction offered. Warning, these Alberts (not the MM nor the Shredda) run absurdly small. I have a 27.5 x 2. 6 Albert Gravity...

I get away with fairly low pressures, particularly on my trail bike that sort of maxes out at about a 3' drop but still sees plenty of chunk. (I'm 182#s) My old AND current set up was a Cross King in the rear with a lightweight insert (broke a rim last year, even with the insert, but at 21 psi) is 23 psi. For the front tire I was mostly running 19 psi with the other tires I was testing, like the Purgatory T9 but when I tried that with the Albert it felt funny right away. A bit of...

Very badly. Makes all imported frames and parts more expensive, passes on those costs to consumers. Frames and parts in the country are already discounted to sell, meaning they won't be ordering any more at a 10%+ increased price as they can't already move the cheaper ones. A universal tariff is a horrendous economic policy

Works Components likely makes a headset that can make whatever adjustments you desire. Your bike sounds like a heavy build with a lot of weight in just the wheels, it's not going to feel nimble.

I don't contest that people have had bad experiences with a Zeb, or any of the forks in this test. Shoot, I compared two bikes a few years ago that both had FOX Factory 36's, 150mm w/ Grip2, and the difference in stiction, air pressure, and damper settings was wild. However, I'll put my foot down and say that we don't give a sh*t about marketing hype. We like to know what a brand has done and why so that we can substantiate their claims on the trail. But we (Vital editorial crew) care way more about trying to give...

Totally, I'm also skeptical of home burnishing wizards and how much of the Great Bushing Epidemic of 2024 is real vs. imagined for social media noise. Based on the video and the comments from Diaz, it seems like it wasn't a bushing issue, " Again NO BUSHING BURNISHING NEEDED OR WOULD HAVE EVEN HELPED." Seems like it was a misalignment in the actual casting or a mis-facing of the casting's axle interface that resulted in a twisting of the lowers when the axle was clamped. Could have been the CSU alignment too, but based on the text from Diaz it...

The hot thing now is 'damper forward' setup because of the new Grip X2 damper. That said, Rockshox's Charger 3.1 offers way LESS damping and more HSC if you want it (much larger adjustment range vs. 3.0). The issue with relying on the damper too much is a problem if you ride steep ass terrain like we do all the time in the PNW. Regularly riding down steep trails with grades 25-35%+ means a fork with a soft airspring/bad mid-stroke will be diving 2/3rds into it's travel before you even hit a bump. Not much suspension left when you do...

I realise this is flogging a several year-long dead horse now but here goes. Scoring the riders with numbers doesn't make sense to me for this event. Rampage feels more like a showcase of things that are simply insane to do on a mountain bike. As soon as you try and assign arbitrary numbers to that it takes away from whoever scores low down the leaderboard. The reason folk are so angry about Brendan's score is the complete lack of recognition for the standout qualities of his run - exposure and technicality (terrain rather than tricks obviously). So how about...

He does know a thing or two about going big in this terrain though right?

if it's been said already, sorry, i didn't read all the replies yet. by far, the easiest thing to do would be to have judging anonymous (like surfing and other sports) 7 judges, each with an anonymous score, highest and lowest thrown out. every judged can have access to replay. scores be damned, the whole week+ was an insane showcase of ludicrous bicycle riding.

On one hand, everyone has already said a lot, but on the other hand this is VitalMTB forums where we go forever so here are my takeaways 🤣: 1. It feels that judges really like "fluidity" which is actually just a mix of speed and lack of hesitation. The riders who had really high scores had fast runs with no moments where you could see them prepare for the next feature. I guess bring back a "free-racer" and let's see if the fastest run of the day can place on the box 2. I gotta say the margin for...