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Enduro-MTB mag is in such a weird spot, and I don’t really trust their reviews. They used to like very conservative geometry for a while, then a year or two years later when reviewing the same bike that they complained about being too long or too slack against a field of new competitors it was now fine. They also used to complain about bikes being too heavy, then two sentences later the lighter tires are way too prone to puncture and every bike should come with DH casings. Their test riders are good from what I’ve seen, but their reviews...

Ohlins sells just a bag of foam rings.

More of an industry news: Garen from Santa Cruz moves to Orbea -> https://www.linkedin.com/posts/garen-becker-62766740_ahoy-pals-time-fli… SC is definitely changing directions and will be interested to see what happens in the future. They seem to be bleeding the talent that got them to being the cool fast brand.... Also could be big moves with Orbea and their new team (Credit to Escape Collective Discord for the sleuth)

Trinity bikes can use Pinion GB's. But they can also use Effigear and the WRP one being developed

To echo what @Robbie420 mentioned, Gates is a massive and highly profitable company, generating over $400 million in free cash flow just last quarter. They likely spend far more on their company Christmas party than on the belt drive bounty for bikes. Put another way, $100K isn't even a rounding error for a company of that scale, its almost insignificant. Regardless of size, from my perspective, it's an interesting bet. On one hand, I’m all for incentivizing brands to adopt belt-driven gearboxes. Personally, I’m very interested in designing bikes that eliminate the conventional drivetrain altogether, even with a weight penalty...

I prefer the Trinity myself

I hope this is on topic - But since it was news from this week. Just got the OneUp pedals delivered. Some pics and size comparison to Saints for anyone that has been contemplating them. They are very similar in size, I would say maybe 5% smaller overall platform. Tried to "dry" clip them in to my Fox Union shoes, but the pins are quite high, and the clip mechanism seems quite hard (From my experience shimano is the same, and it takes a bit for them to "break in) - So I could not clip them in by hand...

Am I the only one here who has ever ridden toe clips? I feel old. I am old I guess. I used to ride my toe clip pedals in soccer cleats with rubber spikes for better foot retention. Nice and tight in the chunder on my fully rigid bike but soft enough to be able to rip them out when in need.

That damn Schroeder always using his Jedi mind tricks to get Dak to spill the beans!

new Levo probably incoming given timing of PB interview + new brose motor announcement

Something everyone has to realize about UBM and UDH is that SRAM is in the business of selling OEM to massive bike companies. Anything SRAM can do to make the process faster and cheaper/better for the OEMs is seen as a win. In the case of Transmission/wireless drivetrains, that is a WIN for OEMs. Say they can shave -5-10 minutes a bike not having to deal with cables, setting stops, tension, etc. They can install a Transmission drivetrain in <5mins, vs. say 10-12min for a cable-actuated version. Now, multiply that times 20,000 MTB builds and you have million(s) of dollars...

I remember being told when the Druid V2 came out that Forbidden is already using this standard and that looks to be accurate.

There are many current and recently ex-employees from Rocky, and almost all of them had no bearing on the current financial outcome of the company.

I think one thing you ignore is the "cool" factor. As a person that does not want to buy another chinese/asian frame, what are your options in the DH space? Atherton, Nicolai, Foes, else? There are some smaller builders, but they are IMO not on the level of engineering and production as the others mentioned. I bet Atherton looked/are looking at the "bespoke" road bike market and bet on that DH riders are now well-earning folks in their 40-50-ies and want something special, tailor-made, exclusive. For me the best example of losing your uniqueness as a brand is Intense. Previously...

The biggest issue I see with Atherton is that let's say they do get really popular and sell heaps. Great, start 3D printing lots of lugs and making lots of frames. The unit costs of the frames are the same if they make 20 or 2000. Sure some things may come down in price for them to bulk purchase, purchase more tubes at once, more adhesive, maybe more SRAM parts, but the actual frames don't get cheaper. They can pay off 3D printing machines faster as they'll have more revenue, but they don't generate the economies of scale of a...

Having inventory with all of the sizes, build options, etc. is so 2019. Build to order is the way forward.

I know that when I ordered my A.170 they wanted to have a conversation first because of the myriad of options that they have. I normally would be super annoyed by this because I know exactly what I want and am quite capable of figuring out my own sizing but I'll give them credit in saying it was a worthwhile discussion in that the various builds that they list have several choices you can make within them, e.g. 180mm vs 170mm Fox 38, colors, etc. Yes, I could have handled it myself if they built it out on the site...

We should probably do a few predictions posts, eh? I've got a number of thoughts going into the new year, and will synthesize them into one post, but I do think we're going to see more companies pull the plug this year. I'll go out on a limb and say Atherton Bikes may be one of those stragglers who calls it quits. I have literally no data on this, so please take this with a huge grain of salt, but when I was poking around their website I realized I can't just "buy it now" with respect to a frame...

Fox working on a new Float X2 👀 post from frameworks racing