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reports are kade took a digger, bonked head and sat out quali. glad he chose to chill. benoit broken scaphoid...worst news ever.

Ritchie looks to have safely qualified. Strong quali from Chris Grice. Neko on the qualifying bubble currently.... Luca too, but is thankfully protected as rider no. 20.

The derailleur plug-in already exists, but they're so hush-hush about it. Trek and Scott had them on some e-bikes. They apparently have a tiny battery to give you 100 or so shifts in the worst of situations. Dropper is going to require quite a redesign and space is already at a premium at the bottom of a dropper. From what I was told, SRAM went with the Shimano motor mounting pattern for immediate and easy installation onto existing bikes. Makes a lot of sense to flood the market quickly, especially if there's no real issue with the mounting pattern. Ruh-roh...

You may as well get it out, it's just gonna get infected if you don't...

It's BONKERS that GM can feel a 3% difference in stiffness...

...must... resist... juvenile... comment...

is it just me, or is that SRAM motor cover looking seriously unfinished and unrefined? SRAM spends so much time on marketing, graphic design and arguably aesthetics, it just looks like a big old lump of plastic. Atleast shimano put some fake vents in lol.

Galfer disc not-shark. Taken from the vital Insta.

bikes going squish from snowshoe for analysis https://www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/g-out-project-snowshoe-world-c…

neko's vid about his FEA/data acquisition sessions

No Mudslayer tire coming from Maxxis.

sram powertrain in a nutshell - we tested it on a transition - https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/sram-goes-e-biking-eagle-powertrain-d… 90Nm Brose motor tuned by SRAM 680W peak power Two assist modes: Range and Rally 630 & 720Wh battery (integrated or removable options) 250Wh Range Extender sold separately Top tube integrated Bridge Display No handlebar-mounted display or control switch options Display has minimal features. For those who want their ride stats live and on-demand, connecting an ANT+ device is a simple solution Integrated with Transmission and AXS Pod Controllers (at time of launch only bikes with Transmission are available using Powertrain) AXS derailleur powered by battery...

if you are basically approaching the limit of something (like flex/stiffness) as a big guy like Greg, small changes can be noticeable. he may not be quantifying it "this is x% stiffer" but comparatively, "x is stiffer than y".

Wait, so it doesn't steer for me?? Hard pass.

Sram making it difficult/ugly to not run the Reverb is a huge miss. Droppers are cockpit items, hugely personal and varying between riders. Locking someone into an $800 dropper with a shitty clamping mech and limited sizes is a bad call. They should've designed a single button pod with a removeable second button (ala Matchmaker) to allow either/or options depending on rider preference.

I actually had the expected high price of Powertrain-equipped bikes included in 'room for improvement' but left it out because A. I don't know the exact pricing yet, and B. The few rough prices I heard were within range of other e-bikes and definitely not the most expensive. E-bikes are an expensive category, so there is no debate that they are unaffordable to a lot of riders. With that said, I'd guess in the next year, SRAM will roll out cheaper versions of Powertrain, and begin letting brands spec bikes with non-Transmission builds to save costs. The same goes for...

It seems like the new Spindrift is on its way, although propain really loves cable tourism, other beautiful bike ruined by stupid ideas

I did a little dive through the spare parts catalog and the service manual just to refresh myself on the HBO implementation that RS is using here. This seems like the most standard hbo implementation that I've seen, where it's a secondary piston with a bleed bypass and not the less common, needle style hbo. Intuitively, the relation of the secondary piston and the depth that it travels into the HBO receiver (for lack of a better way to refer to it), needs to remain constant despite the changes in travel. At any rate, the parts catalogs confirm the fact...