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New TQ will be coming on updated Fuel EXE - Run out sales happening, slash+ To get more models when new TQ comes. I was talking to a trek rep who knows me and said "just wait, You're fussy and youll like whats coming" I buy Far to many bikes.

Can we stop with the pipe dreaming, people would be more likely to glue their head to the table than properly use industrial adhesives in a frame jig. Most people struggle with IKEA,

I've never ridden the SJ15, don't need to as I rode a SJEVo for 3 years and every single thing that I wanted them to fix (i.e. leverage progression, sta, and BB height mainly), Spesh went in the opposite direction. The one thing they had done right (CS length) they went backwards on. Not surprised that bike is a crash and burn. A used SJevo with a Cascade is flat a better bike. I liked mine with the Mullet shock clevis thing, but still running as a 29er. That fixed a lot of crap by making the BB adjustment actually...

Nah. I enjoyed Brain Cahal's (hey assholes!) Bronson comparison, except I too have ridden multiple generations of Bronsons, and guess what, there is a BIG effing difference. The problem as I see it is 3 fold: 1) It was a known regular track, they knew exactly where they were going and that isn't the same as riding your best on a less well known trail. 2) The climbing didn't matter, hello STA & CS length! 3) They are 2 very good riders and that makes up for a lot. Less capable riders are going to be more sensative to HTA...

Yup, one thing I've learned from making things out of all kinds of things from all kinds of materials is that glue can be one of the strongest joints when the parts have the correct clearance, surface finish, cleanliness, application method, fixturing, temperature and cure time but if just one of things is wrong it might be completely useless! A bike company could maybe control 1 or 2 of those things before shipping the parts out but leaving the rest in the hands of a customer is a recipe for disaster...

I was joking with that bit. The rest is accurate

It's because most of the dirt is flung from behind by the spinning front tire and the reverse arch blocks the seals from that.

I’ll take numbers and letters that correspond to anything over “Comp, Expert, Elite, and Pro” What’s more better, Elite or Expert? 😂

Updated Hydra Hub. Thicker axle with new pawl and drive ring design. Adjustable noise levels. Less drag

Who else thinks this needs to be a thing???!!! 😂 Apparently you can make them from discarded 34 stanchions. Get on it machinists, I need some!

I used the gen1 Motion Instruments setup quite a bit, and both agree and disagree. Strictly chasing numbers on DAQ is stupid and won't make the bike feel good. But using it to get the suspension balanced front/rear is great (especially a couple years ago when manufacturer settings seemed pretty far off). Also, it was really great way for me to help identify what each setting did in terms of ride feel (sometimes that would overlap, which was also good to know because sometimes I didn't want to change one thing but still needed to change another). For example, getting...

I couldn't agree more that I don't care at all about which one of a group of bikes, all set up particular ways, is fastest on one track for one rider. And I don't have any interest in y'all trying to use DAQ to tell me what's "better." But I'd be hella interested in y'all using DAQ to ferret out how things are different. Take a new high-end fork, install DAQ, and do some laps with HSC all the way closed and all the way open and see what differences there are in the data. Or if you tested one...

Yup that's totally true - there's no such thing as a "correct" set of numbers when collecting data - they are all just pieces to a puzzle and each bike/rider is going to be slightly different. There are definitely people who focus on make the "right" numbers but that rarely translates to a happy or fast rider. What the rider is feeling and how comfortable they are is always the driving factor - if you are doing data properly you might be able to connect some kind of metric to their feedback and use that to guide your changes, but...

I’m not sure why so much focus on speed here. A lot of marketing doesn’t talk about speed. I change bikes for comfort (fit, suspension, ride feel, and pedal feedback) and for more capability (geo, suspension). I don’t generally hear people switching bikes because they are faster.

I almost think the inverse is true for batteries and motors though. I'm not interested in an ebike but if I was the combination of rapidly evolving tech and massive depreciation (because evolving tech and bike industry...) along with mixed reliability would make me very leery.... And they're not exactly cheap either.

@jeff.brines " I sure would have loved to see a rider pit the old Stumpy Evo against the new Stumpy 15 one in back to back testing (and that rider can't be sponsored by specialized )"

That’s a fair point (and I didn’t know that!), but I’d argue it doesn’t change my overarching point. Bike reviews are, first and foremost, entertainment. This entire site is built around entertainment. I referenced Top Gear because I find it fun, engaging, and—above all—entertaining, not because I see it as a model for an academic journal. At this point, we're losing the script with all this back-and-forth—which is fine—but "What do you want to see in a product review?" probably deserves its own thread, maybe even add a Google Form. Adding something more quantitative (even if bro-science-ish) might be a...

In regards to " just how significant of a headwind the plateauing of performance has become for the broader industry." I have my own anecdotal experience with this in just the last few months. Background: I have been a mountain biking for almost 30 years, I slowly over time worked my way up to having high-end bikes, custom small builder frames, and usually 4-6 bikes at a time. I currently have a custom steel Singlespeed hardtail, a full suspension trail bike, a tricked out Dirt jump bike (evil imperial 😉), a Rigid Fat bike, a gravel grinder/monstercross bike, and enough...