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I was told by MTX if you have contamination to use acetone and its a bit more aggressive than isopropyl. I believe you can try that on the pads too and sand them down as well, but don't quote me on that. From MTX, for rotors: Wear gloves and begin the following process: Remove your rotors - spray them clean with an automotive brake cleaner or isopropyl alcohol. Wipe the rotors dry before the brake cleaner dries. Grab some 80 or 100 grit sandpaper and sand both sides in fairly straight lines, by hand, aggressively. We want to get the...

I felt like quoting this in the super small chance this person finds this thread. I've been in C-Suite roles, said the "right" things, and nobody wanted to listen. It can be very abrasive to raise your hand and say "no", especially if you are a bit younger than the others around you. I imagine its doubly hard as a woman. Its really not fair to blame someone without knowing all the details, as implied earlier. If I did so, I apologize. This is a bit of a thread derail, but learning how to communicate things to leaders that they...

I found that info on NSMB's article here: https://nsmb.com/articles/continental-kryptotal-tires/ " If I were to draw parallels to what majority of the mountain bikers are used to, the Soft compound is similar to Maxxis MaxxTerra and Super Soft is much like MaxxGrip. I've been told by the development team that the knobs are at 40/42a durometer on the Super Soft and that's a wonderful thing for the North Shore Survival toolkit!" I did some durometer testing and forgot to share the results here but your guess is pretty bang on! I found my Rekon Maxterra reading to be pretty wild. The...

Personally I'd say most of us subscribed to this thread do. If you find his posts too long winded then fair enough, don't read them, but for me Jeff brings great insight and knowledge to the thread, he's certainly given me a better understanding of the financial side of the bike world.

Good find! The income statement alone doesn’t tell the whole story, and we really need more context to piece together what went wrong. Unfortunately, some of the key financials I was itching to see are “sealed” in the full document. That said, there’s still plenty of useful information in the PDF—and yes, I did wear my Patagonia vest today. Profitability Rocky wasn’t particularly profitable even in 2022, and things fell apart in 2023 and beyond (as shown by net income, which doesn’t give the full picture but is telling). This is surprising, considering 2020–2022 were peak COVID years. For context...

EY just posted their monitor's report on Rocky Mountain. https://documentcentre.ey.com/api/Document/download?docId=41043&languag… The group is currently carrying a $68.7 million debt.

I've heard a few things about mid-drive drive unit development and the challenges over the years as two of these units were developed in Slovenia and with the country being that small, it's easy for information to spread around the community. As alluded to in the Tech rumours topic regarding wireless piggyback dropper post actuator development, when it comes to electronics (or mechatronics), things get a lot more complicated than with simple mechanics. You need a good sized company to do a mid-drive unit as it requires the development of a motor, the geartrain (dropping the revs to the crankarm...

Here is the overall group org chart from their court filing, en francais as the filing is in Quebec. Propulsion Powercycle Inc is Dyname.

I know this may sound crass, but the Rocky Mountain announcement, much like the GT announcement, doesn’t surprise me. Consolidation in the specialty cycling space has been anticipated for a long time. This consolidation doesn’t always mean brands acquiring other brands; it can also result from major players like Specialized or Trek dominating enough of the market to squeeze out mid-sized competitors. If a brand fails to offer something truly compelling—whether that’s performance, price, brand equity, reliability, or innovation—it’s going to struggle. Unfortunately, the nature of economies of scale makes this consolidation almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. To draw a parallel...

My GT story; In the years 2000-2001, I was working as a team technician and road manager for Schwinn Toyota RAV4 Racing, GT also was owned by Questor at the time. Our challenging experience began in August 2001 during a World Cup race in Arai, Japan. My company credit card was suddenly declined, and we started hearing rumors from the United States that Schwinn/GT was going bankrupt. Despite having our hotel pre-paid, we—myself and team members Elke, Leigh D, and Deldycke—found ourselves in a precarious situation. The office was giving us vague reassurances about potential loans and future payments, but...

Nice work! That would be excellent. I also used a lock on grip clamp for a universal IFP tool I was working on a few years ago - its the perfect size for a tool that fits in almost any shock body! (also had an integrated o-ring sizing cone, X2 IFP puller and a flat side for sticking a ruler on). I planned to test a flat steel version with a shim ID measure tool instead of the cone too. @Primoz - yeah Fox service tool pricing is ridiculous and even worse that they change the sizing every few years...

I do not look at Fox stuff at all because of their outrageous prices for tooling that is very product/generation specific vs. RS pulling along 20+ year old tools in same spec to newer generations of products. To service a modern Air sprung RS fork and shock you need a set of Allen keys, a cassette tool without the 12 mm pin, dust seal installation tool, a bleed syringe for mineral oil, circlip pliers (covered the fork here) and the reservoir wrench, shaft clamps, piggyback inflating adapter from RS and a torque wrench. A good addition is the IFP depth...

Make a well engineered but expensive to manufacture component that is reliable. Or. Make a cheap but unreliable component and just keep replacing it. A large number of the components will never actually be used enough to fail anyway (and so are very profitable) and those that are will be replaced immediately (and cheaply). Customers remember 'the outstanding customer service' rather than having a component that never actually needed it in the first place and associate that with being a good product. eg, Trek spec the '1248' freeehub body on a load of wheelsets, it's absolute garbage and fails constantly...

with bleeding edge you can, after closing the lever, add some more fluid from the caliper and close the system

I just wanted to share a positive experience with Trickstuff and how their brakes can possibly be considered well supported here in North America. For a while now there was an understanding that after spending a lot of money on these, you will have to order spare parts from Germany. Long story short, I somehow ruptured the membrane/diaphragm in both levers. Reached out to TS, they quickly confirmed that the membrane is indeed ruptured and connected with me with a DT Swiss subsidiary in Grand Junction, Colorado. Just a few days later, I receive a package from DT Swiss with...

Some tech pulled from Ohlins and refined. His oval shim clamp that allows the the retune is an expansion on the variable diameter shim clamp Ohlins uses. Sounds like he has given it a broader range of adjustment and ability to better control it with the worm drive screw. A 2020 NSMB article where Steve retunes a TTX18 and specifically comments on it. https://nsmb.com/articles/%C3%B6hlins-rxf-36-m2-spring-swap/

Not sure about the current state, but apparently the middrives from Bosch, Brose and SL units from Specialized were all based on automotive BLDC motors with some adaptations. I think it was a case of an electric water pump, an electric power steering motor and the like being reused. This was done to reuse the stamping tools for the stator and rotor as in the beginning the investment didn't make as much sense or the reuse was a more cost optimal option. Not sure what the state is like today, but it's possible they went to more custom built motors...

I use thinner oil than the fox gold (~50cSt eg Maxima Plush Dynamic light, Rockshox 0w-30 or Motorex 10wt) all year round, especially in larger stanchioned forks or long bushings like a Zeb. Certain applications (ie cold weather or large oil volume like a smashpot) can be even better with a 5 or 7 wt oil. The stuff over 50cSt is good for 32mm cross country forks but creates too much viscous damping at high speed, and can be dragged past your dust wipers and in to your damper too easily

Hey all, just heard back from Rockshox tech support and here's what they had to say. Interestingly, they approved reusing cursh washers between 200-hour services: "The 200-hour service kit includes crush washers, which only need to be replaced during the 200-hour service. They can be reused during 50-hour services. The crush washers for each side of the fork are unique. Bulk crush washers: Charger 2.1 Damper side: 11.4018.127.000 FORK CRUSH WASHERS (FLANGED 8MM) QTY 50 (ZEB , BOXXER 35MM, 35G, 35S, REVELATION RC/CHRC, YARI, PIKE RC B1+, LYRIK RC C1+ DebonAir Spring side: 11.4015.259.000 FORK CRUSH WASHERS - 8MM (QTY...