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I think all it might take is for a product manager to go to a bike shop for whatever reason and spot the wall of tyres for $100+ a pop...

That's the one! Still available for sale if anyone's looking to cement their position as the most prepared buddy in their riding group:

If I remember they're only on gas gas ebikes, I've seen a couple come through my shop, and from a surface level it they feel pretty good. You can find those ebikes for cheap too, X0 transmission builds for like 4k because no body really bought them, if the drivetrain, suspension, other components are worth it to you, it's honestly a pretty sorted E bike, especially for the cost.

A Vital MTB Tech Rumors contributors and enjoyers meetup would be a secret society event I would be fired up to show up to. Somewhere like Whistler in the summer or an apres sea otter. It could be fully unofficial to uninvolve the legal teams of the vital overlords. We could make a partiful and t shirts. All would be merry. Core lords could flex. I would go.

these are good questions... I have opinions of my own based on my own preferences and experiences. What your questions tell me, is that you aren't ready to buy an ebike right now, and you need to spend more time demo'ing them and answering those questions for yourself. No offense meant here... but time in the saddle is the only way to truly answer the questions you have. Do not rush into buying an ebike until you can answer these core questions you are asking... you will regret your purchase if you do not slow down and figure this out...

Sram Powertrain... Talk about hype that disappeared quickly.. I thought I had read somewhere that a new version is in the works... Wait and see?

Wait… there’s gonna be a dji Santa Cruz ebike?

Crestline added swappable dropouts to ther emtb from their DH bike. It seems like a must have for any new frame from any brand moving forward.

A flip chip plus a swappable/adjustable dropout (or some other chainstay lengthening method) is "the answer" to a lot of people's questions. Brian Chainstayhill and others can have their long chainstays and Santa Cruz can reduce the number of different triangles they need to make. I think Pivot has a proprietary dropout that allows for length tweaks. I wonder if there's a way to engineer a similar approach without infringing on the design...I'd bet there is but I don't really know anything about that stuff nor have I looked at any filings.

Hugely helpful for me. I have been wanting some flexible 50 rise bars so you delivered that info perfectly here