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More of a joke in reference to what just went down in the Golf world.

I agree. Something else to factor in is what you & Ed currently dealing with. #selfieswithWynInTheER All of these storylines they want to develop require the riders to be there for the race. In round 1, we've already lost the #2 & #3 winningest riders in history & what seemed like more up and coming riders to the E.R., yet somehow the winningest got a free pass into finals despite multiple mechanicals. With adding 33% more timed, mandatory runs...I can't help but project there is going to be a dramatic increase in injured elite racers this season. Heck, it probably...

from what I understand it was brought in by ESO to soften the change in the cut of 60 riders to 30, I understand they think the sport is more elite with just 30 finalists, and I won't be surprised to see that as the qualifying cut next year. IMO many of these riders now in that top30 have slowly progressed to get there, and them doing so provides great storylines when they do get their first podium and so on, removing 30 riders loses all of that. Here's me hoping some Saudi MTB fan gets involved and creates an...

You should try a 60mm riser bar, and see if that doesn't make a huge difference in your riding. I see a bunch of the spank ones on sale for $40 or so which is pretty inexpensive imo for the benefit it provides.

Suspension also has a huge effect on topped out geometry. When descending with your weight forward you naturally get more compression in the fork and likely will want to compensate by having a higher front end. More travel increases this geometry shift and a XC bike may not require as high of a bar for the same downhill grade. Being a taller rider and facing component limitations as described above, I’ve always added 10-20mm of fork travel vs the stock configuration and have found this to help with fit when crazy handlebars and stem spacer stacks aren’t reasonable.

For enduro/Downhill I absolutely think bar to saddle is a great baseline. You can adjust up and down depending on trail steepness, personal preference, etc. I got clued into this by an article on the "other site" https://www.pinkbike.com/news/importance-of-handlebar-height-mountain-b… awhile back and it totally changed my riding comfort once I came to terms with the concept that maybe the bike designer didn't actually design the large and XL frames with appropriate stack. Here's an excerpt: "For example, the new YT Capra 29 has a five-size range going from small to XXL. YT recommends the small to riders around 160cm, and the...

Who makes an 83mm rise bar?

Here’s a nice pic of the links under compression

Yea makes sense. The frame will be flexing all over the place so not hard to imagine a 0.3°ish flex in the rear end. Definitely looks like the have laid out the hardpoints to minimise this figure as much as possible. Maybe also why they got rid of the vertical race compared to the non jack shaft bike? Cool design though, I really like what it does with the axle path.

They get it all over. A wishbone structure like they have here is not particularly stiff when you try to open it or close it. Adding a vertical brace makes it stiff (that's why triangles are so stiff). The thing is unless there is some magic going on with the layup, the chainstay and seatstay both curve all along the length to achieve this change in angle. Which is likely coupled with optimisations in the geometry of the links to require as little flexing as possible going through the travel.

So yea the pivot for sure needs flex somewhere in the system to unlock it. I did a suuuper rough model and measured the angle between the seat and chain stays at roughly bottom out (dont know shock specs) increases by around 0.3°. Where they're getting this I'm not sure. rear end looks like it built like a brick sh*thouse. (model not to scale).

Not sure if this has been posted about the new Pivot DH bike https://flowmountainbike.com/features/pivots-prototype-downhill-bike-ch…

The demo he’s on is a custom size for him, I can’t see him jumping on the new frame design this season, he clearly has something that works for him. and the next race is this weekend….. so unless he has already been testing the new bike in the background, then I can’t see it happening. I also heard that even the prototype of the new frames work costly, not that would be a problem to a company like specialized. But Loic stuck to the old frame last season when Finn was already on it, to me that indicates that...

Makes sense, comfort on a bike can sometimes outweigh other performance upgrades to a frame/bike. To make the cliche F1 reference, lots of times when one driver gets an "upgrade package" for a race and their teammate is on the "old" package the teammate on the "old" package actually does better because they are used to the car.

Going back a few pages, on the Bikes & Big Ideas podcast, Franco Fratton (EXT’s founder) hinted that a dual crown MTB fork was coming.

Because Discovery wants to cut to only 30 for television. I'm willing to bet that next year they will cut the semi and go straight from quails to finals with only 30 men's racers. They wanted to do it this year but got too much push back. Next year they will say that they heard the negative feedback on semifinals so they are cutting them.

After watching post race interviews where the riders were asked this question as well as actually watching the semis and finals, my vote is for Bad. I do feel as though ESO implemented their idea well, but still am not a fan of adding to the racing. Adding in semis has made it more like Motocross or MXGP. Yes these are top level athletes that should be able to handle the rigors of a massive race day, but part of the spark of DH was the fact that you only have 1 chance to put together your best run. With...

I do not like the new format for the following reasons and here are my suggestions as if ESO will actually listen... 1) I don't think the semi-finals on the same day as finals creates a safe racing environment because of the mental and physical stress that racers have to endure before and during a race run. Suggestion: either move semis up one day, eliminate them and go back to 60 racers in the final or create a new format like @taldfind suggested by having a multiple qualifying rounds. This might also level the field a little and give the...

Agreed. Why are the semi-finals?