All

Are we safe to assume this is an aluminum Spartan HP? If so, why the different name? And why not make it a freeride/park bike with 180ish mm of travel?

The front and rear thing are not necessarily the same device. The rear thing looks like a rubber hose or grip zip tied over something to protect it. Might be an accelerometer, quite large for one tho. Could be a wheel speed sensor, or a pressure transducer for brake force? The way it's sticking up so far might be relevant. If its a post mounted to the frame rigidly with an accelerometer at top and bottom and a front triangle mounted one, they could compare the readings to to see how much torsional flex is occurring in the frames rear...

Because when have bike companies ever actually specced tires in a way that makes sense

Might be wrong but think that its just a fr 541 wheelset

Could it just be a way of measuring travel at the wheel rather than at the shock?

really looks like an e-bike…

I wonder why they chose the DHF MaxxTerra Exo+ over the much better Assegai MaxxGrip Exo+. Note that the rear tire they chose is a DHR MaxxGrip. I can't imagine the price going significantly higher if they chose the Assegai over the DHF (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). 16.35kg OOTB is pretty good these days for a solid aluminum bruiser bike. A few key upgrades down the line can easily shave this down to about 15kg.

Long time listener, first time caller. Happened to stumble across this (cannot link directly as the posts gets deemed as spam) weight is said to be 16.35kg

Which existing lever is this? None I’ve seen

Unsprung. The wheels are unsprung.

If you’re talking about the overall weight of the bike? No. Unsprung weight on the rear wheel? That’s an extra 2 pounds the rear shock has to contend with…

I looked it up. That hub weighs 2kilos! (4 1/2 pounds.) Holy unsprung weight Batman!

Another photo

Yeah I've seen an increase in mis-aligned CSU's in the last few years. One of several things that seemed like rushed production in the covid era. They're never been perfect but were at least close enough to not be noticeable. Never as bad as some of the old (08 era) marzocchis where I would get with 1 mm difference between the top and the bottom of the stanchions. People would always be looking at all kinds of tuning or mods to do on those forks and I was like my dude these are beyond help.......

Yeah the creaking is from the fretting that happens between 2 aluminium surfaces when they rub together so alloy-carbon wouldn't do it as much. Those forks however would leak air in to the steerer tube! *edit - forgot to mention that the stanchion/crown overlap is limited by downtube clearance - as we went to wider hub spacing, larger stanchions and 29" wheels (steeper down tubes) the clearance can be super tight between the dials and the frames. In theory though as the steerer overlap increases you can add an equal amount of height to the stanchion interface

Adds a lot of harshness, no perceivable benefit for off road bicycles:

I don't think this has already been posted in here but this is some pretty cool tech: https://en.nicolai-bicycles.com/custom-bike-gt1-eboxx-3x3-miracle-topaz/ Personally I'm pretty excited about gearbox and belt drives rather than expensive new chains and derailleurs.

They could be using the same internal soft parts as the DB8. The outer body is similar to the Code.

But the reservoir membrane would require a new tool for it. That's why I find it kinda unlikely. It's not a problem as long as we're talking about O-rings, but when custom seals come into play it becomes a bit different. Not impossible, a new tool (to cover different molding characteristics of a different material) is a few grand at most and most prototypes cost more than that, but still... I guess we'll find out sooner than later.